Charlie reads twilight
by MizzPurpleRox
Summary: This story will take place in Charlie's and Bella's point of view. It takes place years after Breaking Dawn and the Cullen's are getting ready to leave as people are getting suspicious. Bella gets ready to say goodbye to Charlie but what happens if Charlie finds out and somehow reads the books?
1. Immortal

**This story will take place in Charlie's and Bella's point of view. It takes place years after Breaking Dawn and the Cullen's are getting ready to leave as people are getting suspicious. Bella gets ready to say goodbye to Charlie but what happens if Charlie finds out and somehow reads the books? My first Fanfic so please no flames! I hope you enjoy and please review so that I don't give up on this story and keep writing! ENJOY!**

**Disclamer- Stephanie Meyer owns EVERYTHING! **

Bella

I stood outside and let scanned the woods hunting for my prey. I few flakes of snow were starting to fall. It was December 1st nearing my last Christmas with Charlie.. The thought saddened me but when I had entered this life I knew this day would come. The day I would have to permanently say goodbye to family and friends. The reason was my glorious, immortal body. I streaked of like a bullet and pounced on a big buck. My teeth went straight to his vein and I started drinking hard and fast. I was a vampire and I was immortal and my father could not know about me.

"Bella, love?"

I spun around to find my mate Edward looking at me anxiously

"Oh are you done hunting?" I quickly said cringing away from his worried stare

"You had your shield down" He murmured approaching me

"Oh" was all I said looking down to the dead carcass "I'm just gonna miss him a lot"

"I know but being a vampire means sacrificing a lot" He said stroking my face

"I'll make any sacrifice as long as I have you" I said smiling up at me

He bent down to kiss me softly before taking my hand and running towards our house.

Suddenly he stopped and a look of horror crept up on his face.

"What is it Edward? I said in a low voice as I flung out my shield to protect us

"Charlie has decided to visit us"

I looked at him still not getting the danger"…and" I ventured

"He knows about us" He whispered

Oh hell


	2. Loophole

**All of ya'll made me feel warm and fuzzy by favoriting my story! PLEAS E REVIEW!**

**Oh and JustcallmeRiley my mind has just been blown!**

**I keep spelling Carlisle wrong (I probs just did again) so ignore it**

**Oh and this chapter has a House of Night reference thingy so look for it!**

**REVIEW!**

**Disclaimer: Lucky duck Stephanie Meyer owns it all**

"What, how?" I said frozen with shock

"Jacob will explain" He growled

"_Jacob?_ Jacob did this?" I spluttered "but he knows not to!"

A few years ago when I first became a vampire Jacob phased in front of Charlie. I had thought he had told my father about vampires and explained why Charlie couldn't know about us. What was he thinking.

"Not exactly love" Edward mumured "lets go inside and everything will be explained"

I let him lead me inside the whole time thinking about what this could mean for me and my family

When we walked inside we saw Jacob standing there wringing his hands. He looked up when we came inside "Bella I-"

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" I growled

"It wasn't me Bells! It was the rest of the wolves!" Jacob said

"Jacob, that doesn't make sense. The wolves are good on keeping the secret" I hissed

"No! He has become part of the Elders. He attended his first council meeting" He explained quickly

"Why didn't we know of this before?" I said still not buying it

"Sam and the other pack thought we would stop them" He said looking down

"Damn right they are!" Emmet's voice boomed from the Kitchen door.

The rest of the Cullens had silently moved into the room while we were having our exchange

"What do we do? The Volturi already want us dead. This would be another excuse!" Esme whispered

"Wait, I think there is a loophole in the Volturi's rules" Carlisle said stepping forward

"Hmmm, that might work" Edward said

Alice hissed under her breath

Edward chuckled "Carlisle was thinking that Aro knew from my thoughts about the other Elders and most of them were human. If they ignored that, they ignore Charlie."

"Knowing the Volturi, they will probably find a way to find a loophole IN our loophole." Jasper said

"Yes, but its all we have to hold on too." Rosalie murmured

I sighed and turned back to Jacob "Do you know when he gets here?"

"Well the council meeting just ended so I'd say he is probably on his way now."


	3. A friend

Suddenly the center of the room started glowing a weird purple color and in a burst of light their was a woman standing there. She was tall, slender and had dark hair the reached her waist. On her forehead was a crescent moon tattoo surrounded by swirls. Her eyes were a deep black like the night sky. She might have been a vampire had I not heard her hurt and the blood rushing in her veins.

We froze and stared at her not sure what to make of her

She laughed and said "I am no enemy, just here to help"

"Wha..." Jacob said his mouth hanging open

"Show these to the human" she said and waved her hand suddenly 4 books appeared on the table

"Who are you" Carlisle said straightening out of his frozen position

"A friend" she simply said and she started glowing purple

"Wait, tell us more. What are you?" Carlisle said reaching for her

She winked and said "Lets just say you guys aren't the only mythical creatures around" and with a flash she was gone

"What. The. Hell." Emmet said staring at the spot she disappeared

"I don't know. Look at the books"

Edward picked up one and looked at the back and read **"about three things i was absolutly positive, 1st, Edward was a vampire, 2nd, there was a part of him, and I didn't know how dominent that part might be, that thirsted for my blood, and 3rd, I was unconditionally and irrevoccably in love with him"**


	4. VampYre

**Hey guys! The mysterious lady was supposed to be Nyx from house of night. I was gonna do Nefret but u know I didnt. This chapter has a little bit more house of night in it but thats about it. I want 5 reviews up before I write the next chapter! Enjoy my story and ya purple aliens don't eat bricks!**

"What. The. Hell." Emmett said

"Wait there is a note" Edward said holding up a little peice of paper

He read it aloud "These four books start when Bella moves into Forks and they end after the incident with the Volturi. I thought it should be voiced by Bella considering the story tends to revolve around her and that you guys can't normally hear her thoughts. Oh and if you are wondering who this is, the world is complex and filled with mythology and Im just part if it like you. From N"

"Well okay then..." Jacob said

"Whoa whoa wait! Voiced by ME? As in you guys here all my thoughts" I said throwing my hands up. "That is unfair"

"Ah little sis, you finally get to feel what we deal with EVERY day" Emmett said throwing an arm around me while throwing a pointed look at Edward

He smiled sheepishly back

"Can I see the book?" I said holding my hand out

"Don't rip any pages out" Jasper said trying to hide a smile

I glared at him before I flipped through the pages

It seemed the author didn't forget any details...hmm the author

Who was the mysterious woman? Then I remembered the crescent moon on her forehead. That ringed a dim bell.

I turned to my family "The tattoo's on her forehead the remind me of something"

"I don't kno- WAIT! A book! She was a character in a book!" Edward said triumphantly

"Really? About what?" Carlisle said

"House of Night! It was a book about-" he broke off his eyes growing wide "It was a book about vampyres"

"Well, the world is complex! Thank you mysterious vampyre lady. Lets hear Bella's thoughts now!" Emmett said grinning down at me

As if on cue we heard Charlie's car came to a stop in front of our house and I took a deep breath and went to meet him at the door


	5. Confrontation

**Guys all I asked for was five reviews! Thanks to those of you who did! Oh and if you don't know the House of Night series you won't have a problem understanding the rest of the book, they probably won't pop up in the rest of the book though. It is a good series so try reading it. I watch Breaking Dawn part 2 and i loved it. For those of you who watched it, I got scared at the end and i'm was like no no NO! and then i was like OHHHHH! And those of you haven't watched it... beware of the end. Enjoy this chapter! R AND R**

**Disclamier: Stephanie Meyer owns everything**

**Bella****  
**I heard Charlie climb the steps of our porch and stop in front of the door. He took two deep breaths before knocking three times, I felt a wave of deja vu as I though of the time Jacob had phased in front of my father and Charlie had come to confront of us. Huh, I guess history does repeat it self. I really hope that doesn't mean we will have the Volturi after us again. I opened the door slowly.

"Hi dad" I whispered

"Bella" he whispered seeming at a loss at words. His face was twisted in emotions such as pain, anger and what I thought might have been fear

"Why don't you come inside dad"

He stepped inside and we walked into the living room where the rest of the Cullens were.

"Hello Charlie" Carlisle said quietly

"Is it true?" Charlie blurted out

"These will explain" Edward said handing Charlie the first book. "They were given to us by a mysterious woman. We suspect that she may be... on of us."

"Oh, what are they?" Charlie said hesitantly reaching out

"It seems they are books about us but in Bella's pov. The stranger left a note in the book" Carlisle said

Charlie read the note then the back of the book

He looked up "Well, I guess we start. Who'll read first?"

"I will I said holding out my hand"

"Preface" I read


	6. Preface

****"Preface" I read

**I'd never given much thought to how I would die**

"Well, that's an interesting way to start a book" Emmett said

**- though I'd had reason enough in** **the last few months - but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.**  
**I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, **

"Hunter?" Jacob asked

**and he looked pleasantly back at me.** **Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved. Noble,** **even.**

"Bella..." Edward said staring at me and I smiled sheepishly back

**That ought to count for something.** **I knew that if I'd never gone to Forks, I wouldn't be facing death now. But, terrified as I**  
**was, I couldn't bring myself to regret the decision. When life offers you a dream so far** **beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.** **The hunter smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me.**

****"Ummmmm WHAT?" Charlie said staring at us with wide eyes

"Well, I guess we should keep reading then." Jasper said

"Whose next? I asked

'I'll go" Edward said taking the book out of my hand

"Chapter 1 First Sight" Edward read aloud


	7. First Sight

**_So late is an understatement to how long ago I should have posted all this. Anyways I'm still crying about BD Part 2. My fav part was the ending with the credits *squeal/sob* I can't believe its over :0 I wanted to recommend another Fanfic since I'm so slow this will keep you occupied. Its at .com It's every single book and MORE in Edward's perspective. She's now working on a peice called twenty years on and she already did a Edwards diary. It's awesome anyways enjoy and excuse my horrible grammar and spelling R & R._**

**_Disclamer: I own nothing._**

"Chapter 1 First Sight" read Edward aloud

**My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was wearing my favorite shirt - sleeveless, white eyelet lace; I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka.**

"Just a parka?" Alice said grimacing

**In the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exists under a near-constant cover of clouds. It rains on this inconsequential town more than any other place in the United States of America. It was from this town and its gloomy, omnipresent shade that my mother escaped with me when I was only a few months old. **

Charlie turned beet red at this and if I were human, I probably would have too

**It was in this town that I'd been compelled to spend a month every summer until I was fourteen. That was the year I finally put my foot down; these past three summers, my dad, Charlie, vacationed with me in California for two weeks instead. It was to Forks that I now exiled myself- an action that I took with great horror.**

Charlie stared at me "You hate forks that much?

"I hated forks but not anymore" I replied

**I detested Forks. I loved Phoenix. I loved the sun and the blistering heat. I loved the vigorous, sprawling city. "Bella," my mom said to me - the last of a thousand times - before I got on the plane. "You don't have to do this." My mom looks like me, except with short hair and laugh lines. I felt a spasm of panic as I stared at her wide, childlike eyes. How could I leave my loving, erratic, harebrained mother to fend for herself?**

Everybody chuckled at that and me and Charlie shared a knowing glance

**Of course she had Phil now, so the bills would probably get paid, there would be food in the refrigerator, gas in her car, and someone to call when she got lost, but still... "I want to go," I lied. I'd always been a bad liar, **

Everybody chuckled and murmured in agreement. I hissed under my breath

**but I'd been saying this lie so frequently lately that it sounded almost convincing now. "Tell Charlie I said hi." "I will." "I'll see you soon," she insisted. "You can come home whenever you want - I'll come right back as soon as you need me." But I could see the sacrifice in her eyes behind the promise. "Don't worry about me," I urged. "It'll be great. I love you, Mom." She hugged me tightly for a minute, and then I got on the plane, and she was gone. It's a four-hour flight from Phoenix to Seattle, another hour in a small plane up to Port Angeles, and then an hour drive back down to Forks. Flying doesn't bother me; the hour in the car with Charlie, though, I was a little worried about.**

"Hey!" Charlie protested

**Charlie had really been fairly nice about the whole thing. He seemed genuinely pleased that I was coming to live with him for the first time with any degree of permanence. He'd already gotten me registered for high school and was going to help me get a car. But it was sure to be awkward with Charlie. Neither of us was what anyone would call verbose,**

Charlie laughed

**and I didn't know what there was to say regardless. I knew he was more than a little confused by my decision - like my mother before me, I hadn't made a secret of my distaste for Forks. When I landed in Port Angeles, it was raining. I didn't see it as an omen - just unavoidable. I'd already said my goodbyes to the sun. Charlie was waiting for me with the cruiser. This I was expecting, too. Charlie is Police Chief Swan to the good people of Forks. My primary motivation behind buying a car, despite the scarcity of my funds, was that I refused to be driven around town in a car with red and blue lights on top. Nothing slows down traffic like a cop.**

Charlie started to protest but stopped "Ya, your right"

** Charlie gave me an awkward, one-armed hug when I stumbled my way off the plane. "It's good to see you, Bells," he said, smiling as he automatically caught and steadied me. "You haven't changed much. How's Ren e?" "Mom's fine. It's good to see you, too, Dad." I wasn't allowed to call him Charlie to his face. I had only a few bags. Most of my Arizona clothes were too permeable for Washington. My mom and I had pooled our resources to supplement my winter wardrobe, but it was still scanty. It all fit easily into the trunk of the cruiser. "I found a good car for you, really cheap," he announced when we were strapped in. "What kind of car?" I was suspicious of the way he said "good car for you" as opposed to just "good car." "Well, it's a truck actually, a Chevy." "Where did you find it?" "Do you remember Billy Black down at La Push?" La Push is the tiny Indian reservation on the coast. "No."**

Jacob shot me a look of mock sadness

** "He used to go fishing with us during the summer," Charlie prompted. That would explain why I didn't remember him. I do a good job of blocking painful, unnecessary things from my memory. "He's in a wheelchair now," Charlie continued when I didn't respond, "so he can't drive anymore, and he offered to sell me his truck cheap." "What year is it?" I could see from his change of expression that this was the question he was hoping I wouldn't ask. "Well, Billy's done a lot of work on the engine - it's only a few years old, really."**

"FEW?" Rosalie's lovely face twisted into a look of horror. She was the biggest car fanatic in the family. She hated my old car more than Edward hated it and that was really saying something!

** I hoped he didn't think so little of me as to believe I would give up that easily. "When did he buy it?" "He bought it in 1984, I think." "Did he buy it new?" "Well, no. I think it was new in the early sixties - or late fifties at the earliest," he admitted sheepishly. "Ch - Dad, I don't really know anything about cars. I wouldn't be able to fix it if anything went wrong, and I couldn't afford a mechanic..." "Really, Bella, the thing runs great. They don't build them like that anymore." The thing, I thought to myself... it had possibilities - as a nickname, at the very least. "How cheap is cheap?" After all, that was the part I couldn't compromise on. "Well, honey, I kind of already bought it for you. As a homecoming gift." Charlie peeked sideways at me with a hopeful expression. Wow. Free. "You didn't need to do that, Dad. I was going to buy myself a car." "I don't mind. I want you to be happy here." He was looking ahead at the road when he said this. Charlie wasn't comfortable with expressing his emotions out loud.**

Charlie turned pink at that and smiled sheepishly.

**I inherited that from him. So I was looking straight ahead as I responded. "That's really nice, Dad. Thanks. I really appreciate it." No need to add that my being happy in Forks is an impossibility.**

"So melodramatic" Emmett snickered

**He didn't need to suffer along with me. And I never looked a free truck in the mouth - or engine. "Well, now, you're welcome," he mumbled, embarrassed by my thanks. We exchanged a few more comments on the weather, which was wet, and that was pretty much it for Conversation. We stared out the windows in silence. It was beautiful, of course; I couldn't deny that. Everything was green: the trees, their trunks covered with moss, their branches hanging with a canopy of it, the ground covered with ferns. Even the air filtered down greenly through the leaves. It was too green - an alien planet.**

Edward smiled at that "No aliens just vampires" Said low enough that only I could hear

**Eventually we made it to Charlie's. He still lived in the small, two-bedroom house that he'd bought with my mother in the early days of their marriage. Those were the only kind of days their marriage had - the early ones. There, parked on the street in front of the house that never changed, was my new - well, new to me - truck. It was a faded red color, with big, rounded fenders and a bulbous cab. To my intense surprise, I loved it. I didn't know if it would run, but I could see myself in it. Plus, it was one of those solid iron affairs that never gets damaged - the kind you see at the scene of an accident, paint unscratched, surrounded by the pieces of the foreign car it had destroyed. "Wow, Dad, I love it! Thanks!" Now my horrific day tomorrow would be just that much less dreadful.**

"Melodramatic" Emmett said in a sing-song voice

**I wouldn't be faced with the choice of either walking two miles in the rain to school or accepting a ride in the Chief's cruiser. "I'm glad you like it," Charlie said gruffly, embarrassed again. It took only one trip to get all my stuff upstairs. I got the west bedroom that faced out over the front yard. The room was familiar; it had been belonged to me since I was born. The wooden floor, the light blue walls, the peaked ceiling, the yellowed lace curtains around the window - these were all a part of my childhood. The only changes Charlie had ever made were switching the crib for a bed and adding a desk as I grew. The desk now held a secondhand computer, with the phone line for the modem stapled along the floor to the nearest phone jack. This was a stipulation from my mother, so that we could stay in touch easily. The rocking chair from my baby days was still in the corner. **

I smiled at Edward because that was the chair Edward used to sit in when he wasn't in my bed night after night.

**There was only one small bathroom at the top of the stairs, which I would have to share with Charlie. I was trying not to dwell too much on that fact. One of the best things about Charlie is he doesn't hover. He left me alone to unpack and get settled, a feat that would have been altogether impossible for my mother. It was nice to be alone, not to have to smile and look pleased; a relief to stare dejectedly out the window at the sheeting rain and let just a few tears escape. I wasn't in the mood to go on a real crying jag. I would save that for bedtime, **

"Melo-"

"Emmett, shut up"

**when I would have to think about the coming morning. Forks High School had a frightening total of only three hundred and fifty-seven - now fifty-eight - students; there were more than seven hundred people in my junior class alone back home. **

"Probably another reason we stick out so much." Edward said

"You guys would stick out back in phoenix too" I said

"Well probably because we would be sparkling" Edward said

I rolled my eyes at him

"Wait what? Sparkling?" Charlie asked

"I'll explain later" I said to him

**All of the kids here had grown up together - their grandparents had been toddlers together. I would be the new girl from the big city, a curiosity, a freak. Maybe, if I looked like a girl from Phoenix should, I could work this to my advantage. But physically, I'd never fit in anywhere. I should be tan, sporty, blond - a volleyball player, or a cheerleader, perhaps - **

"I prefer brunettes" Edward said winking at me

**all the things that go with living in the valley of the sun. Instead, I was ivory-skinned, without even the excuse of blue eyes or red hair, despite the constant sunshine. I had always been slender, but soft somehow, obviously not an athlete; I didn't have the necessary hand-eye coordination to play sports without humiliating myself **

Renesmee looked confused "But you're always so graceful Momma"

Jasper chuckled and said " Back when she was human"-Charlie cringed at the past tense-"she was very clumsy"

"Ooooooh. Maybe we'll get to see her in gym" Emmett said

"Oh gosh no" I said hiding my face in my hands

**- and harming both myself and anyone else who stood too close. **

"I enjoyed it when you hit _Mike Newton_ in the shoulder" Edward said

**When I finished putting my clothes in the old pine dresser, I took my bag of bathroom necessities and went to the communal bathroom to clean myself up after the day of travel. I looked at my face in the mirror as I brushed through my tangled, damp hair. Maybe it was the light, but already I looked sallower, unhealthy. My skin could be pretty - it was very clear, almost translucent- looking - but it all depended on color. I had no color here. Facing my pallid reflection in the mirror, I was forced to admit that I was lying to myself. It wasn't just physically that I'd never fit in. And if I couldn't find a niche in a school with three thousand people, what were my chances here? I didn't relate well to people my age. Maybe the truth was that I didn't relate well to people, period. **

"_Normal_ people" Alice stressed

I rolled my eyes at her

**Even my mother, who I was closer to than anyone else on the planet, was never in harmony with me, never on exactly the same page. Sometimes I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world was seeing through theirs. Maybe there was a glitch in my brain.**

"Yep, its called your shield" Alice chirped

"What does that have to do with not fitting in?" I said

"I don't know about not fitting in but you had a glitch and that was a shield" Alice said

**But the cause didn't matter. All that mattered was the effect. And tomorrow would be just the beginning. ****I didn't sleep well that night, even after I was done crying. The constant whooshing of ****the rain and wind across the roof wouldn't fade into the background. I pulled the faded ****old quilt over my head, and later added the pillow, too. But I couldn't fall asleep until ****after midnight, when the rain finally settled into a quieter drizzle. ****Thick fog was all I could see out my window in the morning, ****and I could feel the** **claustrophobia creeping up on me. You could never see the sky here; it was like a cage. ****Breakfast with Charlie was a quiet event. He wished me good luck at school. I thanked ****him, knowing his hope was wasted. **

"Geez Bella. your so dramatic.' Emmett guffawed

"Well I'm sorry for not controlling my _thoughts_" I shot at him

"Whatever bells, just loosen up...It's just a little rain" He replied

"Grrrrrr" was my response

**Good luck tended to avoid me.**

"Yeaaah"

"No doubt about that"

"No dip sherlock"

"Mmmmmhmmm"

Everybody murmured their agreements

** Charlie left first, off ****to the police station that was his wife and family. After he left, I sat at the old square oak ****table in one of the three unmatching chairs and examined his small kitchen, with its dark ****paneled walls, bright yellow cabinets, and white linoleum floor. Nothing was changed.** **My mother had painted the cabinets eighteen years ago in an attempt to bring some ****sunshine into the house. Over the small fireplace in the adjoining handkerchief-sized ****family room was a row of pictures. First a wedding picture of Charlie and my mom in ****Las Vegas, then one of the three of us in the hospital after I was born, taken by a helpful ****nurse, followed by the procession of my school pictures up to last year's. Those were ****embarrassing to look at - I would have to see what I could do to get Charlie to put them ****somewhere else, at least while I was living here.**

"You never asked me but, they just dissapeared one by one. Hmmmm care to explain yourself Bella?" Charllie said shooting me a sideways glance

"Nope!" I chirped

**It was impossible, being in this house, not to realize that Charlie had never gotten over ****my mom. It made me uncomfortable. ****I didn't want to be too early to school, but I couldn't stay in the house anymore. I ****donned my jacket - which had the feel of a biohazard suit **

"Bella Bella Bella" Emmett shook his head slowly from side to side

"Shut up Emmett!"

**- and headed out into the** **rain. ****It was just drizzling still, not enough to soak me through immediately as I reached for ****the house key that was always hidden under the eaves by the door, and locked up. The ****sloshing of my new waterproof boots was unnerving. I missed the normal crunch of ****gravel as I walked. I couldn't pause and admire my truck again as I wanted; I was in a **** hurry to get out of the misty wet that swirled around my head and clung to my hair under ****my hood.** **Inside the truck, it was nice and dry. Either Billy or Charlie ****had obviously cleaned it up, **

"A little bit of both" Charlie shrugged

**but the tan upholstered seats still smelled faintly of tobacco, gasoline, and peppermint. ****The engine started quickly, to my relief, but loudly, roaring to life and then idling at top** **volume.**

"Almost as bad as the speed of that thing" Edward pretended to shudder

**Well, a truck this old was bound to have a flaw. The antique radio worked, a plus ****that I hadn't expected. **

"Because AM radio is a plus" Jacob shot me a _You-must-be-crazy_ look

**Finding the school wasn't difficult, though I'd never been there before. The school was, ****like most other things, just off the highway. It was not obvious that it was a school; only ****the sign, which declared it to be the Forks High School, made me stop. It looked like a ****collection of matching houses, built with maroon-colored bricks. There were so many ****trees and shrubs I couldn't see its size at first. Where was the feel of the institution? I ****wondered nostalgically. Where were the chain-link fences, the metal detectors?**

"They actually have those in high schools in other cities?" Jacob asked

"We had them in Phoenix" I replied

**I parked in front of the first building, which had a small sign over the door reading front office. No one else was parked there, so I was sure it was off ********limits, but I decid****ed I would ****get directions inside instead of circling around in the rain like an idiot. I stepped ****unwillingly out of the toasty truck cab and walked down a little stone path lined with dark ****hedges. I took a deep breath before opening the door. ****Inside, it was brightly lit, and warmer than I'd hoped. The office was small; a little ****waiting area with padded folding chairs, orange-flecked commercial carpet, notices and ****awards cluttering the walls, a big clock ticking loudly. Plants grew everywhere in large ****plastic pots, as if there wasn't enough greenery outside.**

Everybody laughed and I growled under my breath. I thought is was low enough for Charlie not to hear but he jumped a little and stared at me wide eyed. I shrugged and smiled sheepishly

** The room was cut in half by a ****long counter, cluttered with wire baskets full of papers and brightly colored flyers taped ****to its front. There were three desks behind the counter, one of which was manned by a ****large, red-haired woman wearing glasses. She was wearing a purple t-shirt, which ****immediately made me feel overdressed. ****The red-haired woman looked up. "Can I help you?" ****"I'm Isabella Swan," I informed her, and saw the immediate ****awareness light her eyes. I was****, a topic of gossip no doubt. **

"Charlie you gossip like a teenage girl" I laughed at him

"Do not"

"Do too"

Charlie shot me his crinkly-eyed grin in reply

**Daughter of the Chief's flighty ex-wife, come ****home at last. ****"Of course," she said. She dug through a precariously stacked pile of documents on her ****desk till she found the ones she was looking for. "I have your schedule right here, and a ****map of the school." She brought several sheets to the counter to show row. ****She went through my classes for me, highlighting the best route to each on the map, ****and gave me a slip to have each teacher sign, which I was to bring back at the end of the ****day. She smiled at me and hoped, like Charlie, that I would like it here in Forks. I smiled ****back as convincingly as I could. **

Emmett looked at me and said "Do I need to say it?"

I gave him my coldest glare in reply

**When I went back out to my truck, other students were starting to arrive. I drove around ****the school, following the line of traffic. I was glad to see that most of the cars were older ****like mine, nothing flashy. At home I'd lived in one of the few lower-income ****neighborhoods that were included in the Paradise Valley District. It was a common thing ****to see a new Mercedes or Porsche in the student lot. The nicest car here was a shiny ****Volvo, and it stood out. Still, I cut the engine as soon as I was in a spot, so that the ****thunderous volume wouldn't draw attention to me. ****I looked at the map in the truck, trying to memorize it now; hopefully I wouldn't have ****to walk around with it stuck in front of my nose all day. I stuffed everything in my bag, **** slung the strap over my shoulder, and sucked in a huge breath. I can do this, I lied to ****myself feebly. No one was going to bite me.**

All the Cullens started laughing while Charlie looked around confused. I gestured to Edward to continue.

** I finally exhaled and stepped out of the ****truck.****I kept my face pulled back into my hood as I walked to the sidewalk, crowded with ****teenagers. My plain black jacket didn't stand out, I noticed with relief. ****Once I got around the cafeteria, building three was easy to spot. A large black "3" was ****painted on a white square on the east corner. I felt my breathing ****gradually creeping ****toward hyperventilation as I approached the door. I tried holding my breath as I followed ****two unisex raincoats through the door. ****The classroom was small. The people in front of me stopped just inside the door to ****hang up their coats on a long row of hooks. I copied them. They were two girls, one a ****porcelain-colored blonde, the other also pale, with light brown hair. At least my skin ****wouldn't be a standout here. **

I noticed Charlie glance at all the Cullens. Looking at their skin color no doubt.

**I took the slip up to the teacher, a tall, balding man whose desk had a nameplate ****identifying him as Mr. Mason. He gawked at me when he saw my name - not an ****encouraging response - and of course I flushed tomato red.**

"Aah the famous Bella blush" Edward murmured to me

"_Former_ famous Bella blush" I reminded him

** But at least he sent me to an ****empty desk at the back without introducing me to the class. It was harder for my new ****classmates to stare at me in the back, but somehow, they managed. I kept my eyes down ****on the reading list the teacher had given me. It was fairly basic: Bronte, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner. I'd already read everything. That was comforting... and boring. I ****wondered if my mom would send me my folder of old essays, or if she would think that ****was cheating. **

"She thought it was cheating but agreed to send me half of them but the rest I would have to rewrite. renee is east to negotiate with"

**I went through different arguments with her in my head while the teacher ****droned on. ****When the bell rang, a nasal buzzing sound, a gangly boy with skin problems and hair ****black as an oil slick leaned across the aisle to talk to me. ****"You're Isabella Swan, aren't you?" He looked like the overly helpful, chess club type.**

"Nerd" Alice coughed

**"Bella," I corrected. Everyone within a three-seat radius turned to look at me.**  
**"Where's your next class?" he asked.**  
**I had to check in my bag." Um, Government, with Jefferson, in building six."**  
**There was nowhere to look without meeting curious eyes.**  
**"I'm headed toward building four, I could show you the way..."Definitely over-helpful.**

Edwards eyes narrowed  
**"I'm Eric," he added.**  
**I smiled tentatively. "Thanks."**  
**We got our jackets and headed out into the rain, which had picked up. I could have**  
**sworn several people behind us were walking close enough to eavesdrop. I hoped I wasn't**  
**getting paranoid.**

"Oh they were eavesdropping all right. They all wanted to know about the new girl" Edward smiled at me  
**"So, this is a lot different than Phoenix, huh?" he asked.**  
**"Very."**  
**"It doesn't rain much there, does it?"**  
**"Three or four times a year."**  
**"Wow, what must that be like?" he wondered.**  
**"Sunny," I told him.**  
**"You don't look very tan."**  
**"My mother is part albino."**  
**He studied my face apprehensively, and I sighed. It looked like clouds and a sense of**  
**humor didn't mix. A few months of this and I'd forget how to use sarcasm.**

"So true so true"

** We walked back around the cafeteria, to the south buildings by the gym. Eric walked**  
**me right to the door, though it was clearly marked.**  
**"Well, good luck," he said as I touched the handle. "Maybe we'll have some other**  
**classes together." He sounded hopeful.**

"He was" Edward grumbled  
**I smiled at him vaguely and went inside. **

**The rest of the morning passed in about the same fashion. My Trigonometry teacher,**  
**Mr. Varner, who I would have hated anyway just because of the subject he taught, was the**  
**only one who made me stand in front of the class and introduce myself. I stammered,**  
**blushed, and tripped over my own boots on the way to my seat.**

Emmett laughed at me muttering something about two left feet

I protested "Hey that was before! Can we forget about it?"

"Not a chance lil' sis" Emmett grinned down at me  
**After two classes, I started to recognize several of the faces in each class. There was**  
**always someone braver than the others who would introduce themselves and ask me**  
**questions about how I was liking Forks. I tried to be diplomatic, but mostly I just lied a**  
**lot. At least I never needed the map.**  
**One girl sat next to me in both Trig and Spanish, and she walked with me to the**  
**cafeteria for lunch. She was tiny, several inches shorter than my five feet four inches, but**  
**her wildly curly dark hair made up a lot of the difference between our heights****.**

"Jessica" I smiled remembering my old friend through the dim memories

"I never liked her that much" Edward murmured

"Why not" I said staring at him questioningly

"Her thoughts were..." He trailed off "Not fun too listen too"

**I couldn't ****remember her name, so I smiled and nodded as she prattled about teachers and classes. I**

**didn't try to keep up.**

****"Man she could talk" Alice said "Like, more than me sometimes and that's saying something"

**We sat at the end of a full table with several of her friends, who she introduced to me. I**  
**forgot all their names as soon as she spoke them. They seemed impressed by her bravery**  
**in speaking to me. The boy from English, Eric, waved at me from across the room.**  
**It was there, sitting in the lunchroom, trying to make conversation with seven curious**  
**strangers, that I first saw them.**

"Hmmmm 'them' couldn't be the mysterious gorgeous Cullens" Jasper said smiling slyly  
**They were sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, as far away from where I sat as possible**  
**in the long room. There were five of them. They weren't talking, and they weren't eating,**  
**though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of them. **

"When you guys go back to high school you'll have to make your food look eaten"

Charlie's mouth gaped open at that comment but didn't say anything

All the Cullens had let up the human charade...a lot so Charlie was getting more and more disturbed. Can't wait until his reaction to the big reveal of who we were. I sighed and Edward looked at me questioningly but I gestured for him to continue.

**They weren't gawking at**  
**me, unlike most of the other students, so it was safe to stare at them without fear of**  
**meeting an excessively interested pair of eyes. But it was none of these things that**  
**caught, and held, my attention.**  
**They didn't look anything alike. Of the three boys, one was big - muscled like a**  
**serious weight lifter, with dark, curly hair. **

Emmett laughed and flexed his muscles and I rolled my eyes

**Another was taller,****leaner, but still muscular,****and honey blond.**

Jasper raised his had

**The last was lanky, less bulky, with untidy, bronze-colored hair. **

Last Edward raised his hand as I beamed up at him

**He was** **more boyish than the others, who looked like they could be in college, or even teachers**  
**here rather than students.**  
**The girls were opposites. The tall one was statuesque. She had a beautiful figure, the**  
**kind you saw on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, the kind that made**  
**every girl around her take a hit on her self-esteem just by being in the same room. Her**  
**hair was golden, gently waving to the middle of her back. **

Rosalie raised her hand and shot out a flirty smile

**The short girl was pixielike,** **thin in the extreme, with small features. Her hair was a deep black, cropped short and**  
**pointing in every direction.**

Alice's bell like laughter trilled as she raised her hand  
**And yet, they were all exactly alike. Every one of them was chalky pale, the palest of**  
**all the students living in this sunless town. Paler than me, the albino. They all had very**  
**dark eyes despite the range in hair tones. They also had dark shadows under those eyes -**

**purplish, bruiselike shadows. As if they were all suffering from a sleepless night, or**  
**almost done recovering from a broken nose. Though their noses, all their features, were**  
**straight, perfect, angular.**

I could see Charlie trying not to show that he was studying the Cullens but we knew because everyone stared at us.  
** But all this is not why I couldn't look away.**  
**I stared because their faces, so different, so similar, were all devastatingly, inhumanly**  
**beautiful. They were faces you never expected to see except perhaps on the airbrushed**  
**pages of a fashion magazine. Or painted by an old master as the face of an angel. It was**  
**hard to decide who was the most beautiful - maybe the perfect blond girl, or the bronze-**  
**haired boy.**

Rosalie glared at Edward and he threw his hands up in a don't-hurt-me way "You knew you are the most beautiful here"

She smirked and did one of those perfect hair flips  
**They were all looking away - away from each other, away from the other students,**  
**away from anything in particular as far as I could tell. As I watched, the small girl rose**  
**with her tray - unopened soda, unbitten apple - and walked away with a quick,**  
**graceful lope that belonged on a runway. I watched, amazed at her lithe dancer's step, till **

**he dumped her tray and glided through the back door, faster than I would have thought**  
**possible.**

"Slow down Alice" Esme said

**My eyes darted back to the others, who sat unchanging.**  
**"Who are they ?" I asked the girl from my Spanish class, whose name I'd forgotten.**  
**As she looked up to see who I meant - though already knowing, probably, from my**  
**tone - suddenly he looked at her, the thinner one, the boyish one, the youngest, perhaps.**  
**He looked at my neighbor for just a fraction of a second, and then his dark eyes flickered**  
**to mine.**  
**He looked away quickly, more quickly than I could, though in a flush of embarrassment**  
**I dropped my eyes at once. In that brief flash of a glance, his face held nothing of interest**  
**- it was as if she had called his name, and he'd looked up in involuntary response,**  
**already having decided not to answer.**

"That's kinda what it was" Edward shrugged  
My** neighbor giggled in embarrassment, looking at the table like I did.**  
**"That's Edward and Emmett Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale. The one who left was**

**Alice Cullen; they all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife." She said this under her**  
**breath.**  
**I glanced sideways at the beautiful boy, who was looking at his tray now, picking a**  
**bagel to pieces with long, pale fingers. His mouth was moving very quickly, his perfect**  
**lips barely opening. The other three still looked away, and yet I felt he was speaking**  
**quietly to them.**  
**Strange, unpopular names, I thought. The kinds of names grandparents had. But maybe**  
**that was in vogue here - small town names? I finally remembered that my neighbor was**  
**called Jessica, a perfectly common name. There were two girls named Jessica in my**  
**History class back home.**  
**"They are... very nice-looking." I struggled with the conspicuous understatement.**  
**"Yes!" Jessica agreed with another giggle. "They're all together though - Emmett and**  
**Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice, I mean. And they live together." Her voice held all the **

**shock and condemnation of the small town, I thought critically. But, if I was being**  
**honest, I had to admit that even in Phoenix, it would cause gossip.**

"We stopped caring up the gossip after the first few high schools" Carlisle shrugged

**"Which ones are the Cullens?" I asked. "They don't look related..."**  
**"Oh, they're not. Dr. Cullen is really young, in his twenties or early thirties. They're all**  
**adopted. The Hales are brother and sister, twins - the blondes - and they're foster**  
**children."**  
**"They look a little old for foster children."**  
**"They are now, Jasper and Rosalie are both eighteen, but they've been with Mrs. Cullen**  
**since they were eight. She's their aunt or something like that."**  
**"That's really kind of nice - for them to take care of all those kids like that, when**  
** they're so young and everything."**  
**"I guess so," Jessica admitted reluctantly, and I got the impression that she didn't like**  
**the doctor and his wife for some reason. With the glances she was throwing at their**  
**adopted children, I would presume the reason was jealousy. "I**

**think that Mrs. Cullen can't**  
**have any kids, though," she added, as if that lessened their kindness.**

Esme looked down and Rosalie sat down next to her holding her hand. I was once again glad for Renesmee who made it easier for the Cullens who had wanted children desperatly but never could have them.  
**Throughout all this conversation, my eyes flickered again and again to the table where**  
**the strange family sat. They continued to look at the walls and not eat.**

"Yeah, you guys need to fix that" Carlisle said

"But then again, Bella was always more observant than the normal humans"

**"Have they always lived in Forks?" I asked. Surely I would have noticed them on one**  
**of my summers here.**  
**"No," she said in a voice that implied it should be obvious, even to a new arrival like**  
**me. "They just moved down two years ago from somewhere in Alaska."**  
**I felt a surge of pity, and relief. Pity because, as beautiful as they were, they were**  
**outsiders, clearly not accepted. Relief that I wasn't the only newcomer here, and certainly**  
**not the most interesting by any standard.**  
**As I examined them, the youngest, one of the Cullens, looked up and met my gaze, this**  
**time with evident curiosity in his expression. As I looked swiftly away, it seemed to me **

**that his glance held some kind of unmet expectation.**

"I was so confused as too why I couldn't get a read on you" Edward said

"Yeah we kept waiting for Edward to tell us if you were afraid of us or something yet and he just stared at you" Emmett said  
**"Which one is the boy with the reddish brown hair?" I asked. I peeked at him from the**  
**corner of my eye, and he was still staring at me, but not gawking like the other students**  
**had today - he had a slightly frustrated expression. I looked down again.**  
**"That's Edward. He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date.**  
**Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him." She sniffed, a clear**  
**case of sour grapes. I wondered when he'd turned her down.**

"I tried to be as gentlemanly as possible but she was still bitter for a while " Edward said trying not to laugh  
**I bit my lip to hide my smile. Then I glanced at him again. His face was turned away,**  
**but I thought his cheek appeared lifted, as if he were smiling, too.**

"I was" Eward said smiling  
**After a few more minutes, the four of them left the table together. They all were**  
**noticeably graceful - even the big, brawny one. It was unsettling to watch. The one**  
**named Edward didn't look at me again.**  
**I sat at the table with Jessica and her friends longer than I would have if I'd been sitting**

**alone. I was anxious not to be late for class on my first day. One of my new**  
**acquaintances, who considerately reminded me that her name was Angela, **

"Now Angela, I liked" Edward said

"Good, cause she was always so kind" I said

**had Biology II**  
**with me the next hour. We walked to class together in silence. She was shy, too.**  
**When we entered the classroom, Angela went to sit at a black-topped lab table exactly**  
**like the ones I was used to. She already had a neighbor. In fact, all the tables were filled**  
**but one. Next to the center aisle, I recognized Edward Cullen by his unusual hair, sitting**  
**next to that single open seat.**  
**As I walked down the aisle to introduce myself to the teacher and get my slip signed, I**  
**was watching him surreptitiously. Just as I passed, he suddenly went rigid in his seat. He**  
**stared at me again, meeting my eyes with the strangest expression on his face - it was**  
**hostile, furious. **

Edward shuddered remembering how my scent used to appeal to him. I laid a comforting hand on his arm

**I looked away quickly, shocked, going red again. I stumbled over a book**  
**in the walkway and had to catch myself on the edge of a table. The girl sitting there **

**giggled.**  
**I'd noticed that his eyes were black - coal black.**

"I never noticed a human to be so observant. They rarely notice our eye color" Carlisle speculated

**Mr. Banner signed my slip and handed me a book with no nonsense about**  
**introductions. I could tell we were going to get along. Of course, he had no choice but to**  
**send me to the one open seat in the middle of the room. I kept my eyes down as I went to**  
** sit by him, bewildered by the antagonistic stare he'd given me.**  
**I didn't look up as I set my book on the table and took my seat, but I saw his posture**  
**change from the corner of my eye. He was leaning away from me, sitting on the extreme**  
**edge of his chair and averting his face like he smelled something bad. **

"Not bad, _good_"Edward said with a pain twisting his face

"Hey, what was your problem" Charlie said

"You'll see" Edward replied

**Inconspicuously, I**  
**sniffed my hair. It smelled like strawberries, the scent of my favorite shampoo. It seemed**  
**an innocent enough odor. I let my hair fall over my right shoulder, making a dark curtain**  
**between us, and tried to pay attention to the teacher.**  
**Unfortunately the lecture was on cellular anatomy, something I'd already studied. I took**  
**notes carefully anyway, always looking down.**

**I couldn't stop myself from peeking occasionally through the screen of my hair at the**  
**strange boy next to me. During the whole class, he never relaxed his stiff position on the**  
**edge of his chair, sitting as far from me as possible. I could see his hand on his left leg**  
**was clenched into a fist, **

I noticed that now as he was reading, he was in a very stiff position similar to the one from our first biology class

**tendons standing out under his pale skin. This, too, he never**  
**relaxed. He had the long sleeves of his white shirt pushed up to his elbows, and his**  
**forearm was surprisingly hard and muscular beneath his light skin. He wasn't nearly as**  
**slight as he'd looked next to his burly brother.**

"But I'm still a lot stronger" Emmett scoffed

"Not enough for me too kick your ass a couple of times" I murmured under my breath  
**The class seemed to drag on longer than the others. Was it because the day was finally**  
**coming to a close, or because I was waiting for his tight fist to loosen? It never did; he**  
**continued to sit so still it looked like he wasn't breathing. **

Carlisle pat Edward's back reassuringly

What** was wrong with him?**  
**Was this his normal behavior? I questioned my judgment on Jessica's bitterness at lunch**  
**today. Maybe she was not as resentful as I'd thought.**  
**It couldn't have anything to do with me. He didn't know me from e****ver.**

Yet it had everything to do with me I thought

**I peeked up at him one more time, and regretted it. He was glaring down at me again,**  
**his black eyes full of revulsion.**

"I was repulsed at myself Bella" Edward said to me

"I know, it's okay" I said patting his arm again

"Wait, no its not! What did Bella ever do to get you to treat her that way" Charlie said

"I think the book will explain dad" I replied

As** I flinched away from him, shrinking against my chair,**  
**the phrase if looks could kill suddenly ran through my mind.**

"Not to far from the truth" Jasper said low enogh that Charlie couldn't hear  
**At that moment, the bell rang loudly, making me jump, and Edward Cullen was out of**  
**his seat. Fluidly he rose - he was much taller than I'd thought - his back to me, and he**  
**was out the door before anyone else was out of their seat.**  
**I sat frozen in my seat, staring blankly after him. He was so mean. **

"Sorry" Edward whispered again

"Edward" I sighed "its okay now read and don't stop to apologize again!"

**It wasn't fair. I began**  
**gathering up my things slowly, trying to block the anger that filled me, for fear my eyes**  
**would tear up. For some reason, my temper was hardwired to my tear ducts. I usually**  
**cried when I was angry, a humiliating tendency.**

"I made you CR-" Edward began

"Shhh, what did I say?" I said  
**"Aren't you Isabella Swan?" a male voice asked.**  
**I looked up to see a cute, baby-faced boy, his pale blond hair carefully gelled into**  
**orderly spikes, smiling at me in a friendly way. He obviously didn't think I smelled bad.**

Emmett guffawed

**"Bella," I corrected him, with a smile.**  
**"I'm Mike."**  
**"Hi, Mike."**

"I don't like Mike. Him and his stupid fantasies" Edward growled

"Do** you need any help finding your next class?"**  
**"I'm headed to the gym, actually. I think I can find it."**  
**"That's my next class, too." He seemed thrilled, though it wasn't that big of a**  
**coincidence in a school this small.**  
**We walked to class together; he was a chatterer - he supplied most of the**  
**conversation, which made it easy for me. He'd lived in California till he was ten, so he**  
**knew how I felt about the sun. It turned out he was in my English class also. He was the**  
**nicest person I'd met today.**  
** But as we were entering the gym, he asked, "So, did you stab Edward Cullen with a**  
**pencil or what? I've never seen him act like that."**

I** cringed. So I wasn't the only one who had noticed. And, apparently, that wasn't**  
**Edward Cullen's usual behavior. I decided to play dumb.**  
**"Was that the boy I sat next to in Biology?" I asked artlessly.**  
**"Yes," he said. "He looked like he was in pain or something."**

I mentally cringed thinking about how the flames licked up and down our throat"

**I don't know," I responded. "I never spoke to him."**  
**"He's a weird guy." Mike lingered by me instead of heading to the dressing room. "If I**  
**were lucky enough to sit by you, I would have talked to you."**

"He would do more than talk" Edward snarled  
**I smiled at him before walking through the girls' locker room door. He was friendly and**  
**clearly admiring. But it wasn't enough to ease my irritation.**  
**The Gym teacher, Coach Clapp, found me a uniform but didn't make me dress down for**  
**today's class. At home, only two years of RE. were required. Here, P.E. was mandatory**  
**all four years. Forks was literally my personal hell on Earth.**  
**I watched four volleyball games running simultaneously. Remembering how many**  
**injuries I had sustained - and inflicted - playing volleyball, I felt faintly nauseated.**  
**The final bell rang at last. I walked slowly to the office to return my paperwork. The**  
**rain had drifted away, but the wind was strong, and colder. I wrapped my arms around**  
**myself.**  
**When I walked into the warm office, I almost turned around and walked back out.**

**Edward Cullen stood at the desk in front of me. I recognized again that tousled bronze**  
**hair. He didn't appear to notice the sound of my entrance. I stood pressed against the back**  
**wall, waiting for the receptionist to be free.**  
**He was arguing with her in a low, attractive voice. I quickly picked up the gist of the**  
**argument. He was trying to trade from sixth-hour Biology to another time - any other**  
**time.**  
**I just couldn't believe that this was about me. It had to be something else, something**  
**that happened before I entered the Biology room. The look on his face must have been**  
**about another aggravation entirely. It was impossible that this stranger could take such a**  
**sudden, intense dislike to me.**  
**The door opened again, and the cold wind suddenly gusted through the room, rustling**  
**the papers on the desk, swirling my hair around my face. The girl who came in merely**  
**stepped to the desk, placed a note in the wire basket, and walked out again. But Edward **

**Cullen's back stiffened, and he turned slowly to glare at me - his face was absurdly**  
**handsome - with piercing, hate-filled eyes.**

"I'm s-" Edward began again

"EDWARD! Hush up!" I said exasperated

** For an instant, I felt a thrill of genuine fear,**

"Oh so Bella was capable of fear" Emmett teased me

I rolled my eyed  
**raising the hair on my arms. The look only lasted a second, but it chilled me more than**  
**the freezing wind. He turned back to the receptionist.**  
**"Never mind, then," he said hastily in a voice like velvet. "I can see that it's impossible.**  
**Thank you so much for your help." And he turned on his heel without another look at me,**  
**and disappeared out the door.**  
**I went meekly to the desk, my face white for once instead of red, and handed her the**  
**signed slip.**  
**"How did your first day go, dear?" the receptionist asked maternally.**  
**"Fine," I lied, my voice weak. She didn't look convinced.**  
**When I got to the truck, it was almost the last car in the lot. It seemed like a haven,**  
**already the closest thing to home I had in this damp green hole. **

"MELODRAMATIC" Emmett burst out and then grinned down at me

I hissed under my breath and everybody laughed

**I sat inside for a while,**  
** just staring out the windshield blankly. But soon I was cold ****enough to need the heater, so **

**I turned the key and the engine roared to life. I headed back to Charlie's house, fighting**

**tears the whole way there.**

"End of Chapter one" Edward said quietly

"Edward its okay" I said "You fought the instinct"

Carlisle turned to Charlie who sat white faced and said "How you holding up"

He shrugged relaxing a bit saying "I dunno but i feel like its gonna get a lot more weirder"

Carlisle chuckled and said "Yeah you're right about that"

"Alrighty then, who will read the next chapter?"

"Ummm I will" Rosalie volunteered and took the book from Edward


	8. Open book

_**Okay so next chapter is up. Now its in third person and I added some more characters in like Leah and Seth. Ya ya I shouldn't jump around like this and I used Dire wolfy's fan fic for inspiration is this chapter is really similar to hers but not le same. And I forget I had Rosalie reading the next chapter so Bella is reading this. I hope you guys like this and R & R to keep me motivated to continue this story. **_

_**Disclamer- I own nothing **_

**The next day was better… and worse.**

Emmett looked at Edward. „Okay... which one is your doing?"

Edward just shrugged at response.

**It was better because it wasn't raining yet, though the clouds were dense and opaque. It was easier because I knew what to expect of my day. Mike came to sit by me in English, and walked me to my next class, with Chess Club Eric glaring at him all the while; that was nattering. People didn't look at me quite as much as they had yesterday. I sat with a big group at lunch that included Mike, Eric, Jessica, and several other people whose names and faces I now remembered. I began to feel like I was treading water, instead of drowning in it.**

**It was worse because I was tired; I still couldn't sleep with the wind echoing around the house. It was worse because Mr. Varner called on me in Trig when my hand wasn't raised and I had the wrong answer. It was miserable because I had to play volleyball, and the one time I didn't cringe out of the way of the ball, I hit my teammate in the head with it.**

Emmett snorted. „Figures"

**And it was worse because Edward Cullen wasn't in school at all.**

„Hah" said Jacob. „Looks like you made it worse then."

Edward smirked „By not being there?"

That shut Jacob up.

**All morning I was dreading lunch, fearing his bizarre glares. Part of me wanted to confront him and demand to know what his problem was. While I was lying sleepless in my bed, I even imagined what I would say. But I knew myself too well to think I would really have the guts to do it. I made the Cowardly Lion look like the terminator.**

Edward shook his head „Says one of the bravest people I know."

Bella rolled her eyes, she had never thought herself particularly brave, but all of the others looked surprised at her reaction.

They were all thinking the same thing. _Girl hangs out with vampires and thinks she is a coward?_

**But when I walked into the cafeteria with Jessica — trying to keep my eyes from sweeping the place for him, and failing entirely — I saw that his four siblings of sorts were sitting together at the same table, and he was not with them.**

Seth cast surprised glance at Edward. _That bad?_ He knew that Edward was probably one of the most cotrolled vampires in the world. If he had so hard time being around Bella, how did others manage it?

Edward just grimassed instead of answering.

**Mike intercepted us and steered us to his table. Jessica seemed elated by the attention, and her friends quickly joined us. But as I tried to listen to their easy chatter, I was terribly uncomfortable, waiting nervously for the moment he would arrive. I hoped that he would simply ignore me when he came, and prove my suspicions false. He didn't come, and as time passed I grew more and more tense.**

**I walked to Biology with more confidence when, by the end of lunch, he still hadn't showed. Mike, who was taking on the qualities of a golden retriever,**

Everyone laughed a little at that.

„It is true, this guy acts more like a dog than I do" laughed Jacob.

„Hard to imagine" sniffed Rosalie. Though she had accepted Jacob as part of her family, she still taunted him whenever she got a chance, like she did to Edward.

**walked faithfully by my side to class. I held my breath at the door, but Edward Cullen wasn't there, either. I exhaled and went to my seat. Mike followed, talking about an upcoming trip to the beach.**

„Is this the one where we meet?" asked Jacob from Bella.

„Yeah, but if I remember correctly, then it was postponed for several times so I have no idea when it will be in book"

**He lingered by my desk till the bell rang. Then he smiled at me wistfully and went to sit by a girl with braces and a bad perm. It looked like I was going to have to do something about Mike, and it wouldn't be easy. In a town like this, where everyone lived on top of everyone else, diplomacy was essential. I had never been enormously tactful; I had no practice dealing with overly friendly boys.**

„So boys didn't follow you around in Phoenix?" asked Rosalie, a little surprised. When she had gotten over her instant jealously, she had realised that Bella was actually quite beautiful in her quiet, shy way. She knew that boys were often drawn to it; finding it appealing and not fearing turning down or bitchiness they got from cheerleaders.

„Not really" answered Bella, a little taken aback. „In a school as big as the one I went I was nothing special, and as I said, I have no tact whatsoever."

Charlie made a face. Half of him was wishing things had stayed that way. He didn't really like to hear about all those teenage boys fawning over his Bella. Not to mention all those teenage monsters...

**I was relieved that I had the desk to myself, that Edward was absent. I told myself that repeatedly. But I couldn't get rid of the nagging suspicion that I was the reason he wasn't there. It was ridiculous, and egotistical, to think that I could affect anyone that strongly. It was impossible. And yet I couldn't stop worrying that it was true.**

Alice rolled her eyes. „Trust Bella to feel egoistical for worring he has angered a boy."

Bella shoot her a look „sHonestly Alice, I'm not that bad!"

„'course you are not, you are just too _good_."

Bella glared at Alice, then decided on setting her wardrob in fire.

„Am I now?" she rised her eyebrow at her.

„You wouldn't really do it," Alice smirked.

Bella sighed. Charlie felt confused again. He was doing that a lot. Was there something else they were keeping from him?

**When the school day was finally done, and the blush was fading out of my cheeks from the volleyball incident, I changed quickly back into my jeans and navy blue sweater. I hurried from the girls' locker room, pleased to find that I had successfully evaded my retriever friend for the moment. I walked swiftly out to the parking lot. It was crowded now with fleeing students. I got in my truck and dug through my bag to make sure I had what I needed.**

**Last night I'd discovered that Charlie couldn't cook much besides fried eggs and bacon.**

„Though those are probably the best eggs and bacon I have ever ate," sighed Jacob. He was beginning to feel a little hungry.

„Well, I have had a years and years to practice," mutered Charlie. Bella felt realy relieved that Sue was now ordering in his kitchen.

**So I requested that I be assigned kitchen detail for the duration of my stay. He was willing enough to hand over the keys to the banquet hall. I also found out that he had no food in the house. So I had my shopping list and the cash from the jar in the cupboard labeled FOOD MONEY, and I was on my way to the Thriftway.**

**I gunned my deafening engine to life, ignoring the heads that turned in my direction, and backed carefully into a place in the line of cars that were waiting to exit the parking lot. As I waited, trying to pretend that the earsplitting rumble was coming from someone else's car, I saw the two Cullens and the Hale twins getting into their car. It was the shiny new Volvo. Of course. I hadn't noticed their clothes before**

Alice narrowed her eyes.

— **I'd been too mesmerized by their faces. Now that I looked, it was obvious that they were all dressed exceptionally well; simply, but in clothes that subtly hinted at designer origins.**

„Of course, Alice dresses us," Edward said.

**With their remarkable good looks, the style with which they carried themselves, they could have worn dishrags and pulled it off.**

Most people in the room tried to hide a smiles at Alice expression.

„Not if I have anything to do with it!"

**It seemed excessive for them to have both looks and money. But as far as I could tell, life worked that way most of the time. It didn't look as if it bought them any acceptance here.**

**No, I didn't fully believe that. The isolation must be their desire; I couldn't imagine any door that wouldn't be opened by that degree of beauty.**

**They looked at my noisy truck as I passed them, just like everyone else. I kept my eyes straight forward and was relieved when I finally was free of the school grounds.**

**The Thriftway was not far from the school, just a few streets south, off the highway. It was nice to be inside the supermarket; it felt normal.**

Alice shook her head. „How can you stand that place? Have you any idea how it smells like?"

Bella shrugged. She hadn't been there since she was changed.

**I did the shopping at home, and I fell into the pattern of the familiar task gladly. The store was big enough inside that I couldn't hear the tapping of the rain on the roof to remind me where I was.**

**When I got home, I unloaded all the groceries, stuffing them in wherever I could find an open space. I hoped Charlie wouldn't mind. I wrapped potatoes in foil and stuck them in the oven to bake, covered a steak in marinade and balanced it on top of a carton of eggs in the fridge.**

**When I was finished with that, I took my book bag upstairs. Before starting my homework, I changed into a pair of dry sweats, pulled my damp hair up into a pony-tail, and checked my e-mail for the first time. I had three messages.**

„All from mom, of course" Bella smiled.

„Did you stay in touch with your old schoolmates in Phoenix?" asked Jasper.

„Not much." answered Bella. „We did write sometimes, just to ask how things are going, but you know" she shrugged. „Out of the sight, out of the mind. And considering I couldn't speak with them about really important things, there wasn't much to tell."

**"Bella," my mom wrote…**

**Write me as soon as you get in. Tell me how your flight was. Is it raining? I miss you already. I'm almost finished packing for Florida, but I can't find my pink blouse. Do you know where I put it? Phil says hi.**

**Mom.**

**I sighed and went to the next. It was sent eight hours after the first.**

„About the time I reached home." Bella shook her head, smiling slightly.

**"Bella," she wrote…**

**Why haven't you e-mailed me yet? What are you waiting for?**

**Mom.**

**The last was from this morning.**

**Isabella,**

„Someone is in troubleeee!" Yelled Emmett and Jacob then looked at each other, surprised.

Seth laughed.

**If I haven't heard from you by 5:30 p.m. today I'm calling Charlie.**

**I checked the clock. I still had an hour, but my mom was well known for jumping the gun.**

**Mom,**

**Calm down. I'm writing right now. Don't do anything rash.**

**Bella.**

**I sent that, and began again.**

**Mom,**

**Everything is great. Of course it's raining. I was waiting for something to write about.**

**School isn't bad, just a little repetitive. I met some nice kids who sit by me at lunch.**

**Your blouse is at the dry cleaners - you were supposed to pick it up Friday.**

**Charlie bought me a truck, can you believe it? I love it. It's old, but really sturdy, which is good, you know, for me.**

**I miss you, too. I'll write again soon, but I'm not going to check my e-mail every five minutes. Relax, breathe. I love you.**

**Bella.**

**I had decided to read ****_Wuthering Heights_**

Everyone in the room rolled their eyes.

„Do you ever get bored of this book? Asked Edward, exasperated.

„No" Bella smirked

— **the novel we were currently studying in English — yet again for the fun of it, and that's what I was doing when Charlie came home. I'd lost track of the time, and I hurried downstairs to take the potatoes out and put the steak in to broil.**

**"Bella?" my father called out when he heard me on the stairs.**

**Who else? I thought to myself.**

„Oh I can name a few possibilities," smirked Emmett.

„Like who?" asked Charlie sharply, before Bella could say anything.

„Oh, you have no idea how many people have used Bella's bedroom window as entrance," Emmett said, ignoring the glares she was geting from both Edward and Bella.

„Who?!" repeated Charlie angrily. Bella realised he wasn't going to let it go.

„If you just have to know, then Alice, Edward, Jasper, Jacob and a few unidetntifyed persons." answered Bella holding back a shudder at the mentioning of newborns. „And relax, dad, most of them just wanted a quick word."

„Except for Eddie-boy here," muttered Emmett, but he had enough sense to keep it too quiet for Charlie to hear.

**"Hey, Dad, welcome home."**

**"Thanks." He hung up his gun belt and stepped out of his boots as I bustled about the kitchen. As far as I was aware, he'd never shot the gun on the job. But he kept it ready.**

**When I came here as a child, he would always remove the bullets as soon as he walked in the door. I guess he considered me old enough now not to shoot myself by accident, and not depressed enough to shoot myself on purpose.**

Charlie shuddered a little. Just a few months later he had begun not only taking bullets out, but also hiding gun from a view as soon as he reached home, not wanting to give Bella any ideas. He saw Edward wincing from the corner of his eye. Kid probably realised what he was thinking about. Good for him.

**"What's for dinner?" he asked warily. My mother was an imaginative cook, and her experiments weren't always edible. I was surprised, and sad, that he seemed to remember that far back.**

Esme laughed a little.

„What did you two ate then anyway?"

Charlie grinned sheepishly „Sometimes she had a pretty good ideas, but usually we just went to the diner a lot."

Bella laughed. „Some things never change. Why do you think I learned how to cook anyway?"

**"Steak and potatoes," I answered, and he looked relieved.**

Charlie looked a little embarassed. Sue grinned.

**He seemed to feel awkward standing in the kitchen doing nothing; he lumbered into the living room to watch TV while I worked. We were both more comfortable that way. I made a salad while the steaks cooked, and set the table.**

**I called him in when dinner was ready, and he sniffed appreciatively as he walked into the room.**

**"Smells good, Bell."**

**"Thanks."**

**We ate in silence for a few minutes. It wasn't uncomfortable. Neither of us was bothered by the quiet. In some ways, we were well suited for living together.**

**"So, how did you like school? Have you made any friends?" he asked as he was taking seconds.**

**"Well, I have a few classes with a girl named Jessica. I sit with her friends at lunch. And there's this boy, Mike, who's very friendly. Everybody seems pretty nice." With one outstanding exception.**

**"That must be Mike Newton. Nice kid — nice family. His dad owns the sporting goods store just outside of town. He makes a good living off all the backpackers who come through here."**

Edward made a face.

**"Do you know the Cullen family?" I asked hesitantly.**

**"Dr. Cullen's family? Sure. Dr. Cullen's a great man."**

All Cullen children and Esme smiled at Charlie, who looked rather uncomfortable. He knew this would go even worse.

**"They… the kids… are a little different. They don't seem to fit in very well at school."**

**Charlie surprised me by looking angry.**

**"People in this town," he muttered. "Dr. Cullen is a brilliant surgeon who could probably work in any hospital in the world, make ten times the salary he gets here," he continued, getting louder. "We're lucky to have him — lucky that his wife wanted to live in a small town. He's an asset to the community, and all of those kids are well behaved and polite. I had my doubts, when they first moved in, with all those adopted teenagers. I thought we might have some problems with them. But they're all very mature — I haven't had one speck of trouble from any of them. That's more than I can say for the children of some folks who have lived in this town for generations. And they stick together the way a family should — camping trips every other weekend… Just because they're newcomers,people have to talk."**

There was stunned silence. Sue (and Bella) were the only ones, who didn't look surprised.

Alice beamed at Charlie „Wow, this is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about us."

Others nodded in agreement. Carlisle looked at Charlie straight into the eye. „You know, Charlie this truly means a lot for us. Even if you... may have changed your mind about some thing you said." Charlie made an odd movement, which was something between nodding and shaking his head. He didn't know what to think anymore.

Jasper noticed his distress and tried to erase it a little, while gesturing Bella to continue reading.

**It was the longest speech I'd ever heard Charlie make. He must feel strongly about whatever people were saying.**

**I backpedaled. "They seemed nice enough to me. I just noticed they kept to themselves. They're all very attractive," I added, trying to be more complimentary.**

**"You should see the doctor," Charlie said, laughing. "It's a good thing he's happily married. A lot of the nurses at the hospital have a hard time concentrating on their work with him around."**

„Do they now?" laughed Esme, growling playfully. She couldn't really accuse them.

**We lapsed back into silence as we finished eating. He cleared the table while I started on the dishes. He went back to the TV, and after I finished washing the dishes by hand — no dishwasher — I went upstairs unwillingly to work on my math homework. I could feel a tradition in the making. That night it was finally quiet. I fell asleep quickly, exhausted.**

**The rest of the week was uneventful. I got used to the routine of my classes. By Friday I was able to recognize, if not name, almost all the students at school. In Gym, the kids on my team learned not to pass me the ball and to step quickly in front of me if the other team tried to take advantage of my weakness. I happily stayed out of their way.**

**Edward Cullen didn't come back to school.**

„How long were you away?" asked Seth.

„I was back by Monday," answered Edward.

„Fortunately" mutered Bella, thinking about the Tuesday morning.

**Every day, I watched anxiously until the rest of the Cullens entered the cafeteria without him. Then I could relax and join in the lunchtime conversation. Mostly itcentered around a trip to the La Push Ocean Park in two weeks that Mike was putting together. I was invited, and I had agreed to go, more out of politeness than desire. Beaches should be hot and dry.**

Nessie, who had gone back sitting next to Jacob, put her hand on his cheek, showing him the driftwood fires. _I like it_, she thought. Jacob smiled. The treaty was more or less pointless now and he had taken Nessie into the beach several times and showed her everything there was to find. She had even watched werewolves cliff diving and scared Bella to death, jumping in after them. Not that she needed to worry about fallling, but she was still half human and she couldn't breathe in the water. But apparently, like many other things, swimming came to her naturaly.

**By Friday I was perfectly comfortable entering my Biology class, no longer worried that Edward would be there. For all I knew, he had dropped out of school. I tried not to think about him, but I couldn't totally suppress the worry that I was responsible for his continued absence, ridiculous as it seemed.**

**My first weekend in Forks passed without incident. Charlie, unused to spending time in the usually empty house, worked most of the weekend. I cleaned the house, got ahead on my homework, and wrote my mom more bogusly cheerful e-mail. I did drive to the library Saturday, but it was so poorly stocked that I didn't bother to get a card; I would have to make a date to visit Olympia or Seattle soon and find a good bookstore. I wondered idly what kind of gas mileage the truck got… and shuddered at the thought.**

„Never managed to get to Seattle after all," remarked Bella.

„Good thing too, it became very dangerous quite soon." said Charlie. „Remember all those murders?"

Most people in the room shuddered at the mention of this. Charlie noticed, but decided better not to ask.

**The rain stayed soft over the weekend, quiet, so I was able to sleep well.**

**People greeted me in the parking lot Monday morning. I didn't know all their names, but I waved back and smiled at everyone. It was colder this morning, but happily not raining. In English, Mike took his accustomed seat by my side. We had a pop quiz on ****_Wuthering Heights_****. It was straightforward, very easy.**

„For you, it most definitely is," chuckled Edward. Bella made a face at him.

**All in all, I was feeling a lot more comfortable than I had thought I would feel by this point. More comfortable than I had ever expected to feel here.**

**When we walked out of class, the air was full of swirling bits of white. I could hear people shouting excitedly to each other. The wind bit at my cheeks, my nose.**

**"Wow," Mike said. "It's snowing."**

„No shit, Sherlock" Jacob rolled his eyes. Edward supressed a sniger.

Carlisle smiled a little at the mention of famous detective, whom the most people believed to be a fictional character. He had had a fortune to meet him briefly... but this is a story for the other time.

**I looked at the little cotton fluffs that were building up along the sidewalk and swirling erratically past my face.**

**"Ew." Snow. There went my good day.**

Nessie looked surprised. „Don't you like snow?" she asked out loud.

„I do, now" smiled Bella. Becoming a vampire had definitely changed her view to the many things, weather included. „But at this point I wasn't very fond of the wet and cold."

**He looked surprised. "Don't you like snow?"**

**"No. That means it's too cold for rain." Obviously. "Besides, I thought it was supposed to come down in flakes — you know, each one unique and all that. These just look like the ends of Q-tips."**

„Ends of Q-tips" smiled Emmett. „You for sure have a weird mind, little sis."

Bella did the mature thing and stuck her tongue out to him. Charlie looked at them, a little surprised. He had never seen Bella act like that. But then again, Emmett could probably bring out a childish side from anyone.

**"Haven't you ever seen snow fall before?" he asked incredulously.**

**"Sure I have." I paused." On TV."**

Everyone laughed.

**Mike laughed. And then a big, squishy ball of dripping snow smacked into the back of his head. We both turned to see where it came from. I had my suspicions about Eric, who**

**was walking away, his back toward us — in the wrong direction for his next class. Mike**

**appatently had the same notion. He bent over and began scraping together a pile of the white mush.**

Edward laughed „Remind me to thank Eric if we ever meet him again." From all Bella's admirers at school, Eric was definitely most bearable. At least he was smart enough to back off when he was told no.

**"I'll see you at lunch, okay?" I kept walking as I spoke. "Once people start throwing wet stuff, I go inside."**

**He just nodded, his eyes on Eric's retreating figure.**

**Throughout the morning, everyone chattered excitedly about the snow; apparently i was the first snowfall of the new year. I kept my mouth shut. Sure, it was drier than rain **— **until it melted in your socks.**

**I walked alertly to the cafeteria with Jessica after Spanish. Mush balls were flying everywhere. I kept a binder in my hands, ready to use it as a shield if necessary.**

Charlie couldn't help but smile at that. „I somehow doubt this would have helped much." Emmett and Edward laughed.

„I don't know" smirked Seth. „Bella is rather pro with the whole 'shielding' thing, aren't you Bells?" he winked at his stepsister.

Bella winked back, though privately she agreed with Charlie.

**Jessica thought I was hilarious, but something in my expression kept her from lobbing a snowball at me herself.**

Edward laughed again. „She did have some self-preservation instincts. You looked rather scary at the moment."

Charlie narrowed his eyes at him „And how would you know that?"

„I was back," said Edward simply.

**Mike caught up to us as we walked in the doors, laughing, with ice melting the spikes in his hair. He and Jessica were talking animatedly about the snow fight as we got in line to buy food. I glanced toward that table in the corner out of habit. And then I froze where I stood. There were five people at the table.**

**Jessica pulled on my arm.**

**"Hello? Bella? What do you want?"**

**I looked down; my ears were hot. I had no reason to feel self-conscious, I reminded myself. I hadn't done anything wrong.**

**"What's with Bella?" Mike asked Jessica.**

**"Nothing," I answered. "I'll just get a soda today." I caught up to the end of the line.**

**"Aren't you hungry?" Jessica asked.**

**"Actually, I feel a little sick," I said, my eyes still on the floor.**

**I waited for them to ****_get _****their food, and then followed them to a table, my eyes on my feet.**

**I sipped my soda slowly, my stomach churning. Twice Mike asked, with unnecessary concern, how I was feeling.**

„He is a nice boy." rematked Charlie. _Why wouldn't Bella fell in love with him?_

Emmett snorted at that.

„You wouldn't have thought him so nice if you had heard how he fantasised about Bella" said Edward before he could stop himself.

Charlie begin slowly turn red. Both Bella and Carlisle looked at him worriedly.

„Are you trying to say this... this... boy fantasised about my little girl! And spoke about that?!" he thundered.

„Well... he didn't exactly know anyone would hear." said Edward carefully. „But essentialy, yes"

It took all Jasper's might to keep Charlie from either having a stroke or running out from the door to go and arest Mike. This wasn't made any easier by the fact that he would have hardly felt sorry for the boy.

**I told him it was nothing, but I was wondering if I ****_should _****play it up and escape to the nurse's office for the next hour.**

Emmett shook his head with a mock sadness „Skiping, Bells. Really."

Bella smiled at his big brother. She knew he was just doing it to help Charlie calm down.

**Ridiculous. I shouldn't have to run away.**

**I decided to permit myself one glance at the Cullen family's table. If he was glaring at me, I would skip Biology, like the coward I was.**

**I kept my head down and glanced up under my lashes. None of them were looking this way. I lifted my head a little.**

**They were laughing. Edward, Jasper, and Emmett all had their hair entirely saturated with melting snow. Alice and Rosalie were leaning away as Emmett shook his dripping hair toward them. They were enjoying the snowy day, just like everyone else — only they looked more like a scene from a movie than the rest of us.**

Rosalie laughed slightly.

„At least you didn't see the part where Emmett tried to act 'normal' and craked a snowball against the brick on the other side a room." Bella laughed.

„Which cracked, snowball or brick?"

„Both."

Now everyone was laughing, expect Charlie, who just stared at Emmett.

**But, aside from the laughter and playfulness, there was something different, and I couldn't quite pinpoint what that difference was. I examined Edward the most carefully.**

**His skin was less pale, I decided — flushed from the snow fight maybe — the circles under his eyes much less noticeable. But there was something more. I pondered, staring, trying to isolate the change.**

„Eyecolour" muttered Bella. Jasper looked shocked.

„You saw that from this far away?" Bella shrugged.

„I didn't see what was different, just that something was."

**"Bella, what are you staring at?" Jessica intruded, her eyes following my stare.**

**At that precise moment, his eyes flashed over to meet mine. I dropped my head, letting my hair fall to conceal my face. I was sure, though, in the instant our eyes met, that he didn't look harsh or unfriendly as he had the last time I'd seen him. He looked merely curious again, unsatisfied in some way.**

Seth chuckled, knowing what it meant. _Poor guy is trying to figure out why he can't hear her thoughts._

Edward's grimace was enough to confirm his susipcions.

**"Edward Cullen is staring at you," Jessica giggled in my ear.**

**"He doesn't look angry, does he?" I couldn't help asking.**

**"No," she said, sounding confused by my question. "Should he be?"**

**"I don't think he likes me," I confided. I still felt queasy. I put my head down on my arm.**

**"The Cullens don't like anybody…well, they don't notice anybody enough to like them. But he's still staring at you."**

**"Stop looking at him," I hissed.**

**She snickered, but she looked away. I raised my head enough to make sure that she did, contemplating violence if she resisted.**

Jacob chuckled „You are right, Edward, she does have some self preservation instincts. Especially if you take into consideration how violent Bella is." He grimaced.

Everione laughed at that, including Nessie, who didn't know about her mother punching Jacob, but remembered very well her reaction to her nickname.

**Mike interrupted us then — he was planning an epic battle of the blizzard in the parking lot after school and wanted us to join. Jessica agreed enthusiastically. The way she looked at Mike left little doubt that she would be up for anything he suggested. I kept silent. I would have to hide in the gym until the parking lot cleared.**

Jacob laughed. „That I would have liked to see."

„Well, too bad then that snow melted before gym had even begun." Bella snapped. She was begining to get annoyed with Jacob already and she knew that things will only get worse, when she and Edward get together.

**For the rest of the lunch hour I very carefully kept my eyes at my own table. I decided to honor the bargain I'd made with myself. Since he didn't look angry, I would go to Biology. My stomach did frightened little flips at the thought of sitting next to him again.**

**I didn't really want to walk to class with Mike as usual — he seemed to be a popular target for the snowball snipers**

Boys laughed. „Tough luck Mickey boy."

— **but when we went to the door, everyone besides me groaned in unison. It was raining, washing all traces of the snow away in clear, icy ribbons down the side of the walkway. I pulled my hood up, secretly pleased. I would be free to go straight home after Gym. Mike kept up a string of complaints on the way to building four.**

**Once inside the classroom, I saw with relief that my table was still empty. Mr. Banner was walking around the room, distributing one microscope and box of slides to each table. Class didn't start for a few minutes, and the room buzzed with conversation. I kept my eyes away from the door, doodling idly on the cover of my notebook.**

**I heard very clearly when the chair next to me moved, but my eyes stayed carefully focused on the pattern I was drawing.**

**"Hello," said a quiet, musical voice.**

**I looked up, stunned that he was speaking to me.**

„Yeah, why did you?" asked Leah. „I mean no offense or anything, but after the last chapter it doesn't really make sense."

„At first I just wanted to calm her down, so she wouldn't think anything of the way I acted last time" explained Edward „But I must say I was curious." He tapped his temple, so Leah could understand, what he meant. „And the more I talked to her, the more curious I became.

**He was sitting as far away from me as the desk allowed, but his chair was angled toward me. His hair was dripping wet, disheveled — even so, he looked like he'd just finished shooting a commercial for hair gel. His dazzling face was friendly, open, a slight smile on his flawless lips. But his eyes were careful.**

**"My name is Edward Cullen," he continued. "I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan."**

**My mind was spinning with confusion. Had I made up the whole thing? He was perfectly polite now. I had to speak; he was waiting. But I couldn't think of anythingconventional to say.**

**"H-how do you know my name?" I stammered.**

**He laughed a soft, enchanting laugh.**

**"Oh, I think everyone knows your name. The whole town's been waiting for you to arrive."**

**I grimaced. I knew it was something like that.**

**"No," I persisted stupidly. "I meant, why did you call me Bella?"**

**He seemed confused. "Do you prefer Isabella?"**

**"No, I like Bella," I said. "But I think Charlie — I mean my dad — must call me Isabella behind my back — that's what everyone here seems to know me as," I tried to explain, feeling like an utter moron.**

„Sorry" Charlie grinned. „Had I known this would be annoying for you I would have told everyone not to use your full name." Bella made a face at him. The last thing she would have wanted was Charlie explaining to whole town how to call her or how to act around her. Charlie had, of course known that.

**"Oh." He let it drop. I looked away awkwardly.**

**Thankfully, Mr. Banner started class at that moment. I tried to concentrate as he explained the lab we would be doing today. The slides in the box were out of order. Working as lab partners, we had to separate the slides of onion root tip cells into the phases of mitosis they represented and label them accordingly. We weren't supposed to use our books. In twenty minutes, he would be coming around to see who had it right.**

**"Get started," he commanded.**

**"Ladies first, partner?" Edward asked. I looked up to see him smiling a crooked smile so beautiful that I could only stare at him like an idiot.**

**"Or I could start, if you wish." The smile faded; he was obviously wondering if I was mentally competent.**

„No, I was thinking I had freaked you out."

**"No," I said, flushing. "I'll go ahead."**

**I was showing off, just a little. I'd already done this lab, and I knew what I was looking for. It should be easy. I snapped the first slide into place under the microscope and adjusted it quickly to the 40X objective. I studied the slide briefly.**

**My assessment was confident." Prophase."**

**"Do you mind if I look?" he asked as I began to remove the slide. His hand caught mine, to stop me, as he asked. His fingers were ice-cold, like he'd been holding them in a snowdrift before class. But that wasn't why I jerked my hand away so quickly. When he touched me, it stung my hand as if an electric current had passed through us.**

„Awwww." said Alice. „Ain't that cute or what?"

Jacob rolled his eyes . „Yeah" he said sarcasticaly. „Electric current. Real cute."

Bella smacked him over his head. „Will you stop with that?"

Jacob shrugged. He knew he wouldn't anyway. Charlie was beginning to look weird again and lighthearted banter was just what he needed.

**"I'm sorry," he muttered, pulling his hand back immediately. However, he continued to reach for the microscope. I watched him, still staggered, as he examined the slide for an even shorter time than I had.**

**"Prophase," he agreed, writing it neatly in the first space on our worksheet. He swiftly switched out the first slide for the second, and then glanced at it cursorily.**

**"Anaphase," he murmured, writing it down as he spoke.**

**I kept my voice indifferent. "May I?"**

**He smirked and pushed the microscope to me.**

**I looked through the eyepiece eagerly, only to be disappointed. Dang it, he was right.**

Edward chuckled. „Did you want me to be wrong?" he asked, his eyes twinkling.

Bella pretended to think „Hmmm... This way I would have been sure you are human."

Everyone laughed. Edward ignored them. „And did you want me to be human?"

Bella looked thoughtful again.

„Nah!"

**"Slide three?" I held out my hand without looking at him. He handed it to me; it seemed like he was being careful not to touch my skin again. I took the most fleeting look I could manage.**

**"Interphase." I passed him the microscope before he could ask for it. He took a swift peek, and then wrote it down. I would have written it while he looked, but his clear, elegant script intimidated me. I didn't want to spoil the page with my clumsy scrawl.**

**We were finished before anyone else was close. I could see Mike and his partner comparing two slides again and again, and another group had their book open under the table.**

**Which left me with nothing to do but try to not look at him… unsuccessfully. I glanced up, and he was staring at me, that same inexplicable look of frustration in his eyes.**

**Suddenly I identified that subtle difference in his face.**

**"Did you get contacts?" I blurted out unthinkingly.**

„So you did notice," remarked Jasper. He was becoming a little worried. He hadn't thought it would be possible for a human to notice that much, but they had to be more careful from now on. Bella wasn't only observant person whom they would meet.

„Only becauce I was looking directly into his eyes and I remembered them very clearly because of the death stares he was giving me last time."

**He seemed puzzled by my unexpected question. "No."**

**"Oh," I mumbled. "I thought there was something different about your eyes."**

**He shrugged, and looked away.**

**In fact, I was sure there was something different. I vividly remembered the flat black color of his eyes the last time he'd glared at me — the color was striking against the background of his pale skin and his auburn hair. Today, his eyes were a completely different color: a strange ocher, darker than butterscotch, but with the same golden tone. I didn't understand how that could be, unless he was lying for some reason about the contacts. Or maybe Forks was making me crazy in the literal sense of the word.**

Charlie looked at the Edward's eye's. Ocher wasn't exactly the word he would have used, it was darker, almost brown, but yet it was still somehow goldish. As he looked around, he realised that all of the Cullens had similar eyes, though the tones varied between butterscotch and black. He wondered why he hadn't noticed this before. And he could have sworn that Bella's eyes were brown just yesterday... Maybe she had been the one wearing contacts.

**I looked down. His hands were clenched into hard fists again.**

**Mr. Banner came to our table then, to see why we weren't working. He looked over our shoulders to glance at the completed lab, and then stared more intently to check the answers.**

**"So, Edward, didn't you think Isabella should get a chance with the microscope?" Mr. Banner asked.**

Charlie looked annoyed. „Did he think you wouldn't know the answers?" Bella grinned at her father.

**"Bella," Edward corrected automatically. "Actually, she identified three of the five."**

**Mr. Banner looked at me now; his expression was skeptical.**

Charlie huffed.

**"Have you done this lab before?" he asked.**

**I smiled sheepishly. "Not with onion root."**

**"Whitefish blastula?"**

**"Yeah."**

**Mr. Banner nodded. "Were you in an advanced placement program in Phoenix ?"**

**"Yes."**

**"Well," he said after a moment, "I guess it's good you two are lab partners." He mumbled something else as he walked away. After he left, I began doodling on my notebook again.**

**"It's too bad about the snow, isn't it?" Edward asked.**

Alice shook her head. „Weather Edward! Honestly?"

Edward smiled his crooked smile „It is always safe topic. It's not like I had any real experience with making small talk."

**I had the feeling that he was forcing himself to make small talk with me. Paranoia swept over me again. It was like he**

**had heard my conversation with Jessica at lunch and was trying to prove me wrong.**

Edward grinned at that. Charlie looked at him and wondered if it was possible he really heard them. But hadn't Bella said he sat at the other side of the cafeteria? _Must be another vampire thing._

**"Not really," I answered honestly, instead of pretending to be normal like everyone else. I was still trying to dislodge the stupid feeling of suspicion, and I couldn't concentrate.**

**"You don't like the cold." It wasn't a question.**

**"Or the wet."**

**"Forks must be a difficult place for you to live," he mused.**

**"You have no idea," I muttered darkly.**

**He looked fascinated by what I said, for some reason I couldn't imagine. His face was such a distraction that I tried not to look at it any more than courtesy absolutely demanded.**

**"Why did you come here, then?"**

**No one had asked me that — not straight out like he did, demanding.**

„Edward!" Esme chided gently. Edward looked sheepish.

„I was already decided I won't talk to her again. So I just tried to find out as much about her as possible, knowing she would be polite enough to answer as long as I am rude enough to ask."

„Why didn't you want to talk to her again?" demanded Charlie.

„I had already talked to her more than I had ever talked to any other student. We don't make attachments. It is as painful as it is dangerous." answered Edward a little sadly. It was true. Constant moving was hard enough as it was, making friends just to say them final goodbye in every few years would have made things much worse.

Werewolves and Sue glanced at vampires, half surprised, half sympathetic. They had never thought of it like that.

**"It's… complicated."**

**"I think I can keep up," he pressed.**

**I paused for a long moment, and then made the mistake of meeting his gaze. His dark gold eyes confused me, and I answered without thinking.**

**"My mother got remarried," I said.**

**"That doesn't sound so complex," he disagreed, but he was suddenly sympathetic.**

**"When did that happen?"**

**"Last September." My voice sounded sad, even to me.**

**"And you don't like him," Edward surmised, his tone still kind.**

**"No, Phil is fine. Too young, maybe, but nice enough."**

**"Why didn't you stay with them?"**

**I couldn't fathom his interest, but he continued to stare at me with penetrating eyes, as ifmy dull life's story was somehow vitally important.**

**"Phil travels a lot. He plays ball for a living." I half-smiled.**

„One of the reasons I like this guy," smiled Charlie. He had met Phil only briefly, but he had grown quite a fond of him. Not only did he take care for Renee, he also clearly loved Bella and he was all-around nice guy.

**"Have I heard of him?" he asked, smiling in response.**

**"Probably not. He doesn't play ****_well_****. Strictly minor league. He moves around a lot."**

**"And your mother sent you here so that she could travel with him." He said it as an assumption again, not a question.**

„I was trying to figure you out, but I wasn't doing very good job at that."

**My chin raised a fraction." No, she did not send me here. I sent myself."**

**His eyebrows knit together. "I don't understand," he admitted, and he seemed unnecessarily frustrated by that fact.**

„You have no idea," muttered Edward, looking frustrated again by just a memory.

**I sighed. Why was I explaining this to him? He continued to stare at me with obvious curiosity.**

**"She stayed with me at first, but she missed him. It made her unhappy… so I decided it was time to spend some quality time with Charlie." My voice was glum by the time I finished.**

**"But now you're unhappy," he pointed out.**

**"And?" I challenged.**

Most of the room laughed or rolled their eyes.

„How very Bella," said Jasper and others nodded in agreement.

Leah was deep in thought, trying to comprehend what she had heard. She had always thought Bella to be rather selfish person, playing with boys' feelings, constantly puting people around her into danger and causing them distress. Even her readiness to die for Renesmee had seemed egoistical to her; she hadn't even thought twice of the pain she caused to those she who loved her. Now listening to things like that, she couldn't help but think she may have been a little unjust. She wished she had a time to think all of it through, but Bella had already continued reading, trying to ignore the good-natured jabs she was geting from around the room.

**"That doesn't seem fair." He shrugged, but his eyes were still intense.**

**I laughed without humor. "Hasn't anyone ever told you? Life isn't fair."**

**"I believe I ****_have _****heard that somewhere before," he agreed dryly.**

„Yeah, I may have," remarked Edward similar tone as he had used in book.

Other vampires snorted at that. They knew all about the life's unfairness.

**"So that's all," I insisted, wondering why he was still staring at me that way.**

**His gaze became appraising. "You put on a good show," he said slowly. "But I'd be willing to bet that you're suffering more than you let anyone see."**

**I grimaced at him, resisting the impulse to stick out my tongue like a five-year-old, and looked away.**

Emmett laughed. „You should have."

So Bella did just that.

**"Am I wrong?"**

**I tried to ignore him.**

**"I didn't think so," he murmured smugly.**

**"Why does it matter to ****_you _****?" I asked, irritated. I kept my eyes away, watching the teacher make his rounds.**

**"That's a very good question," he muttered, so quietly that I wondered if he was talking to himself.**

Edward nodded. „I didn't expect you to hear that."

**However, after a few seconds of silence, I decided that was the only answer I was going to get. I sighed, scowling at the blackboard.**

**"Am I annoying you?" he asked. He sounded amused.**

**I glanced at him without thinking… and told the truth again." Not exactly. I'm more annoyed at myself. My face is so easy to read — my mother always calls me her open book." I frowned.**

**"On the contrary, I find you very difficult to read." Despite everything that I'd said and he'd guessed, he sounded like he meant it.**

„Oh he did!" laughed Emmett. „You have no idea how frustrated he was with it. Thought he was loosing his touch."

Bella grinned at the response.

**"You must be a good reader then," I replied.**

**"Usually." He smiled widely, flashing a set of perfect, ultrawhite teeth.**

Charlie narrowed his eyes. Everyone were hinting at something about it. He was beginning to suspect that Edward was better at reading people than humanly possible. Not that there was anything human about the guy... He glanced at him to see if he had reacted to his suspicions, but he seemed to be completely preoccupied with the strand of Bella's hair he was playing with. Jasper, on the other hand was glancing between them and trying to hide a smirk. Huh, weird.

**Mr. Banner called the class to order then, and I turned with relief to listen. I was in disbelief that I'd just explained my dreary life to this bizarre, beautiful boy who may or may not despise me. He'd seemed engrossed in our conversation, but now I could see, from the corner of my eye, that he was leaning away from me again, his hands gripping the edge of the table with unmistakable tension.**

„Listening you talk was enthraling enough to keep my mind away from your smell." murmured Edward too softly for the humans to hear.

**I tried to appear attentive as Mr. Banner illustrated, with transparencies on the overhead projector, what I had seen without difficulty through the microscope. But my thoughts were unmanageable.**

**When the bell finally rang, Edward rushed as swiftly and as gracefully from the room as he had last Monday. And, like last Monday, I stared after him in amazement.**

**Mike skipped quickly to my side and picked up my books for me. I imagined him with a wagging tail.**

Everione erupted into laughter. Jacob was actually rolling around at the floor, gasping

„Retriever... wagging... tale... Hah!

Charlie was also laughing, but looking at Jacob talking about 'tails' did reduce his amusement a little.

**"That was awful," he groaned. "They all looked exactly the same. You're lucky you had Cullen for a partner."**

„Why, this insolent boy" growled Charlie, his amusement forgotten. He was still very angry with Mike.

**"I didn't have any trouble with it,"**

„You tell him!"

**I said, stung by his assumption. I regretted the snub instantly. "I've done the lab before, though," I added before he could get his feelings hurt.**

**"Cullen seemed friendly enough today," he commented as we shrugged into our raincoats. He didn't seem pleased about it.**

„Of course." Edward grinned. Some of the Mike's thoughts had been rather murderous at the time. He would have liked to see him try anything though. Or maybe not. It was hard enough not to shove him into toilet seat as it was..

**I tried to sound indifferent. "I wonder what was with him last Monday."**

**I couldn't concentrate on Mike's chatter as we walked to Gym, and PE. didn't do much to hold my attention, either. Mike was on my team today. He chivalrously covered my position as well as his own, so my woolgathering was only interrupted when it was my turn to serve; my team ducked warily out of the way every time I was up.**

Nessie giggled and pressed her hand on her mother's cheek and showed her, how hard it was to imagine her to be clumsy. Bella smiled. At least that was something her vampire body didn't dissapoint with.

**The rain was just a mist as I walked to the parking lot, but I was happier when I was in the dry cab. I got the heater running, for once not caring about the mind-numbing roar of the engine. I unzipped my jacket, put the hood down, and fluffed my damp hair out so the heater could dry it on the way home.**

**I looked around me to make sure it was clear. That's when I noticed the still, white figure. Edward Cullen was leaning against the front door of the Volvo, three cars down from me, and staring intently in my direction. I swiftly looked away and threw the truck into reverse, almost hitting a rusty Toyota Corolla in my haste.**

„Bella" said Charlie shooking his head, dissapointed. He was a cop, after all.

Bella had a grace to look properly ashamed. „Sorry dad. That was stupid of me. At least nothing happened." _For now at least._ She suddenly remembered that incident with Tyler shoud be happening next day. She hoped Charlie wouldn't be too upset when he realises how closely she escaped death. On the other hand, this would make him nicer to Edward.

**Lucky for the Toyota, I stomped on the brake in time. It was just the sort of car that my truck would make scrap metal of.**

Emmett laughed. „You are right, The Thing is about as enduring as your usual tank." Bella smirked.

**I took a deep breath, still looking out the other side of my car, and cautiously pulled out again, with greater success. I stared straight ahead as I passed the Volvo, but from a peripheral peek, I would swear I saw him laughing.**

Bella closed the book. „This was the end of the chapter. And it is nearly a midnight." she glanced at Renesmee, whose eyes were heavy with sleep."

Charlie nodded reluctantly. „We should probably head home." but his eyes were longingly on the book.

„Are you at work tomorrow?" asked Bella.

Charlie shook his head. „I still have a few days of vacation left."

„Then we should be able to continue reading at morning." said Carlisle. „Is it alright with everyone?

No one had any objections, so it was decided they would be back by nine o'clock sharp.

„Are you kids coming with us?" asked Charlie from Seth and Leah.

„We better just run." Answered Seth. Leah nodded her head. It was clear that Charlie and Sue needed some alone time.

„I will come with you" told Jacob, giving Nessie a good night hug. Three werewolves run towards the forest, in unspoken agreement keeping their human forms, so they could be alone with their thoughts.

Charlie hadn't said a word since he had sat in car. He was deep in thought, thinking about Bella and what would have driven her to choose such a fate. What life-threatening situations were they talking about? What did Renesmee had to do with it? That lead his thoughts to Edward. As displeased as he had been with him at times, he had always thought of him as a good boy. He was nice, polite and it was clear how much he loved Bella. Why would he have wanted such a fate to someone he loved? Why would he have wanted such a fate for himself? Or did he? What happened that made that obviously good and quite young boy into monster from most hellish nightmares? Or Carlisle with his endless patience, or sweet and happy little Alice? What kind of definition was 'monster' anyway?

Someone put a hand on his shoulder. He looked away from the road for a moment and into concerned, dark eyes.

„Sue?" he asked quietly.

„Yes?"

„D'you think... no do you know if Bella is happy?" there, now he had asked the most important question out loud.

Sue was quiet for a moment. She had met all of the Cullens before, several times even. But it was always with Charlie, when they were hiding their true natures, trying to act as human as possible. But her children had seen them differently, known them, as they were. She still remembered Seth coming home after newborn's battle, only his worry over Jacob reducing his excitement. She had seen with worry how he grow more and more close to them, always telling they were good. Leah's hostility had made nothing to lessen her concern.

But Leah had softened with time. And so had Sue. Seeing them constantly, acting as human as possible for their kind, hearing Seth's stories about the jokes and silly little bets and banters had made them seem more... natural. After all, she had known Bella since she was a little kid. And there was no doubt Nessie was sweetest little thing she had ever met. Her granddaughter of sorts.

Slowly, but surely she nodded. „Didn't you see her today? Or yesterday, or any day before that? She was thrilled. This is the life she choose, and this wasn't decision made lightly. I know a little of what happened between her moving Forks and joining their family, but I know _he_ always wanted the best for her. They all did.

Charlie smiled a little as he stoped his car in front of the house. „Thank you, Sue. I needed to hear it."

Sue laughed. „I know."

„Let's get inside, shall we?" offered Charlie. „There is still much I need to think through before I am able to get any sleep."


	9. Phenomenon

**Chapter 3**

**Hey guys I'm back so I should be updating faster than I usually do. Thanks for the reviews but I'd love more! Keep my motivated to keep writing. **

Charlie POV

BUZZZZ! BUZZZ!

"Uuungh" I moaned while reaching blindly for the alarm clock. I slapped the snooze and rolled over. Something like a dream was fighting out of my subconscious. Suddenly my eyes popped open as soon is all of yesterday flew back into my memory. I groaned and looked up at the ceiling. The movement jostled my wife, my love, my rock through all of this; Sue. She smiled at me and softly said to me "Hey"

"Hey, sleep okay?" I asked

"Mmmhm you?" She replied

"Good" I said

After a moment of silence she said "Are we going to go back today?"

"Yeah, I need to finish this story." I replied. I waited a second and said "You always knew about all of this, didn't you?"

"Yes, since Henry died and Seth and Leah…." She trailed of

"Well, I'm not sure if I'm glad to be in on the secret….yet" I smiled ruefully

She laughed softly and rolled out of bed. She leaned down to kiss me and said "Well let's get ready, best not keep the Cullens waiting"

I ate quickly and we climbed into the Cruiser to drive to the Cullens house. Bella, Edward, Renesmee and Jacob were waiting for the door.

"Hey Dad" Bella said and cautiously reached out to hug me

I returned her hug and tried to telegraph through touch that I wasn't afraid of her because no matter what she was, she would always be my baby girl. We pulled back and I seemed to see she understood than we turned towards the house. Edward smiled at me and I nodded at my son-in-law. The son-in-law who got my daughter into this mess… Anyway we reached inside and saw the whole Cullen family and all of Jacob's wolf pack. Many of them looked uncomfortable but Jacob and Seth looked completely at ease. I wondered where the wolves fit into all of this. I didn't have any more time to think before Carlisle was pulling out the book.

"So who reads today?"

"I can" Emmett volunteered as he smirked at Bella's stormy expression "Chapter 3. Phenomenon" he read aloud

**When I opened my eyes in the morning, something was different.**

**It was the light. It was still the gray-green light of a cloudy day in the forest, but it was clearer somehow. I realized there was no fog veiling my window.**

**I jumped up to look outside, and then groaned in horror.**

**A fine layer of snow covered the yard,**

"You hated snow mama?" Renesmee asked

"Yeah, I didn't like the cold much back then"

"Yep her and her clumsiness couldn't walk across it without falling like 50 times" Jasper said

"Grrrr" Bella growled

I'm jumped at the sound and looked at her with a face filled with horror and shock and she smile ruefully at me and whispered "Vamp thing"

I sorted out the jumbled thoughts in my head an gestured at Emmett to continue

**dusted the top of my truck, and whitened the road. But that wasn't the worst part. All the rain from yesterday had frozen solid ****—**** coating the needles on the trees in fantastic, gorgeous patterns, and making the driveway a deadly ice slick.**

"Oooh that's not good for Bella" Emmett said in a sing-song voice before reading again

**I had enough trouble not falling down when the ground was dry; it might be safer for me to go back to bed now.**

**Charlie had left for work before I got downstairs. In a lot of ways, living with Charlie was like having my own place, and I found myself reveling in the aloneness instead of being lonely.**

"I'm glad because I always thought I left you alone too much" I said smiling at her

"I told you that I'm too much like you" Bella said smiling back at me

**I threw down a quick bowl of cereal and some orange juice from the carton. I felt excited to go to school,**

"I wonder why" Edward said to Bella and she playfully elbowed him.

**and that scared me. I knew it wasn't the stimulating learning environment I was anticipating, or seeing my new set of friends. If I was being honest with myself, I knew I wase ager to get to school because I would see Edward Cullen.**

Edward grinned a triumphant grin down at his wife before giving her quick kiss.

**And that was very, very stupid.**

"Yes, yes it was" Edward said

"Eh, we haven't been the smartest of couples" Bella said shrugging

**I should be avoiding him entirely after my brainless and embarrassing babbling yesterday. And I was suspicious of him; why should he lie about his eyes? I was still frightened of the hostility**

I glared at Edward and he gave me a sorry smile

**I sometimes felt emanating from him, and I was still tongue-tied whenever I pictured his perfect face. **

"Hardly, I mean the things you said had _me_ tongue tied. Normally I'm so smooth and I easily veer the conversation away from my secret but with you I didn't know what to say" Edward said

**I was well aware that my league and his league were spheres that did not touch.**

"Exactly, you are so far out of my league I still wonder how I got you married me." Edward said gazing adoringly at his wife

"I don't deserve you" Bella said snuggling into his side

I looked away and for one fleeting second was happy Edward loved my daughter so much. He made her very happy (when he wasn't breaking her heart)

**So I shouldn't be at all anxious to see him today.**

**It took every ounce of my concentration to make it down the icy brick driveway alive.**

Everybody chuckled at that

**I almost lost my balance when I finally got to the truck, but I managed to cling to the side mirror and save myself. Clearly, today was going to be nightmarish.**

Nightmarish hmmm…. Suddenly I had a feeling that today was the day of the, the accident. I gulped and saw Edwards stiffen and pull Bella closer. He must have realized it to… at the exact moment as me.

**Driving to school, I distracted myself from my fear of falling and my unwanted speculations about Edward Cullen by thinking about Mike and Eric,**

Again I heard that weird growling noise but this time it came from Edward. Bella simply laughed and kissed him on the cheek. He instantly relaxed

**and the obvious difference in how teenage boys responded to me here. I was sure I looked exactly the same as I had in Phoenix. Maybe it was just that the boys back home had watched me pass slowly through all the awkward phases of adolescence and still thought of me that way.**

**Perhaps it was because I was a novelty here, where novelties were few and far between.**

"Or maybe cause you are utterly gorgeous" I heard Edward murmur

**Possibly my crippling clumsiness was seen as endearing rather than pathetic, casting me as a damsel in distress. Whatever the reason, Mike's puppy dog behavior and Eric's apparent rivalry with him were disconcerting. I wasn't sure if I didn't prefer being ignored.**

"By all but _Edward_" Emmett crooned and Jasper started guffawing with him

**My truck seemed to have no problem with the black ice that covered the roads. I drove very slowly, though, not wanting to carve a path of destruction through Main Street.**

**When I got out of my truck at school, I saw why I'd had so little trouble. Something silver caught my eye, and I walked to the back of the truck ****—**** carefully holding the side for support ****—**** to examine my tires.**

**There were thin chains crisscrossed in diamond shapes around them.**

**Charlie had gotten up who knows how early to put snow chains on my truck.**

"Hey I never said thanks for that" Bella said suddenly smiling tenderly at me

"Well yeah you're my daughter" I said in a gruff voice since I wasn't used being emotional and stuff

**My throat suddenly felt tight. I wasn't used to being taken care of, and Charlie's unspoken concern caught me by surprise.**

I smiled at her quickly before looking down again

**I was standing by the back corner of the truck, struggling to fight back the sudden wave of emotion the snow chains had brought on, when I heard an odd sound.**

Oh no I thought. I mean even though Bella was in front of my alive (sort of *mental cringe*) that day was one of my worst. I saw my thought mirror Edward's expression as he held tightly on to Bella. She simply rolled her eyes.

**It was a high-pitched screech, and it was fast becoming painfully loud. I looked up, startled.**

**I saw several things simultaneously. Nothing was moving in slow motion, the way it does in the movies. Instead, the adrenaline rush seemed to make my brain work much faster, and I was able to absorb in clear detail several things at once.**

**Edward Cullen was standing four cars down from me, staring at me in horror. **

"Of all the things you notice Bella" Jacob said peering down at her and she rolled her eyes again.

**His face stood out from a sea of faces, all frozen in the same mask of shock. But of more immediate importance**

"Ha '_of more immediate importance_' Glad to see you noticed the van about to crush you" Alice said as I cringed at her words

**was the dark blue van that was skidding, tires locked and squealing against the brakes, spinning wildly across the ice of the parking lot. It was going to hit the back corner of my truck, and I was standing between them. I didn't even have time to close my eyes.**

**Just before I heard the shattering crunch of the van folding around the truck bed, something hit me, hard, but not from the direction I was expecting.**

"Here comes my hero" I saw rather than hear her murmur

**My head cracked against the icy blacktop,**

"Sorry" Edward mouthed

**and I felt something solid and cold pinning me to the ground. I was lying on the pavement behind the tan car I'd parked next to. But I didn't have a chance to notice anything else, because the van was still coming. It had curled gratingly around the end of the truck and, still spinning and sliding, was about to collide with me again.**

"Magnet for danger. It just wouldn't leave you alone!" Edward said playfully

**A low oath made me aware that someone was with me, and the voice was impossible not to recognize. Two long, white hands shot out protectively in front of me, and the van shuddered to a stop a foot from my face, the large hands fitting providentially into a deep dent in the side of the van's body.**

"Wait, WHAT?!" I shrieked "Yo- you stopped the van with your HANDS!"

"All right Charlie" Carlisle said "let's teach you something's about vampires"

"We are extremely fast" Edward said "As in you wouldn't be able to see us of we ran at _half_ the speed we are capable of"

"We are super strong" Emmett said as he flexed his no frightening looking muscles "Like uproot-a-tree or throw-a-car-across-a-lot strong"

"We can hear much more than you can and have enhanced vision" Jasper finished

I calmed down a little bit though I was still freaking out a little but it was hard to concentrate…on…thaaat. I noticed Bella shoot Jasper a grateful look that I didn't understand.

**Then his hands moved so fast they blurred. One was suddenly gripping under the body of the van, and something was dragging me, swinging my legs around like a rag doll's, till they hit the tire of the tan car. A groaning metallic thud hurt my ears, and the van settled, glass popping, onto the asphalt — exactly where, a second ago, my legs had been.**

"You noticed everything" Edward said shaking his head

"You scared us that day. Thought our secret would be out the window" Carlisle said shaking his head but he smiled to let Edward know it was ok.

**It was absolutely silent for one long second before the screaming began.**

**In the abrupt bedlam, I could hear more than one person shouting my name.**

**But more clearly than all the yelling, I could hear Edward Cullen's low, frantic voice in my ear.**

**"Bella? Are you all right?" "I'm fine." My voice sounded strange. I tried to sit up, and realized he was holding me against the side of his body in an iron grasp.**

**"Be careful," he warned as I struggled. "I think you hit your head pretty hard. "I became aware of a throbbing ache centered above my left ear.**

**"Ow," I said, surprised.**

Everybody laughed while Bella glowered

**"That's what I thought." His voice, amazingly, sounded like he was suppressing laughter.**

**"How in the****…****" I trailed off, trying to clear my head, get my bearings.**

**"How did you get over here so fast?" "I was standing right next to you, Bella," he said, his tone serious again.**

"I can't believe you tried to convince her that after all you did" Jacob said

"I had to try dog" Edward said playfully

**I turned to sit up, and this time he let me, releasing his hold around my waist and sliding as far from me as he could in the limited space. I looked at his concerned, innocent expression and was disoriented again by the force of his gold-colored eyes. What was I asking him?**

Jacob snorted and everybody started laughing while Bella hid behind Edward

**And then they found us, a crowd of people with tears streaming down their faces, shouting at each other, shouting at us.**

**"Don't move," someone instructed.**

**"Get Tyler out of the van!" someone else shouted.**

**There was a flurry of activity around us. I tried to get up, but Edward's cold hand pushed my shoulder down.**

**"Just stay put for now." "But it's cold," I complained. It surprised me when he chuckled under his breath. There was an edge to the sound.**

**"You were over there," I suddenly remembered, and his chuckle stopped short. "You were by your car." His expression turned hard. "No, I wasn't." "I saw you." All around us was chaos. I could hear the gruffer voices of adults arriving on the scene. But I obstinately held on to our argument; I was right, and he was going to admit it.**

"Always stubborn" Edward said laughing

**"Bella, I was standing with you, and I pulled you out of the way." He unleashed the full, devastating power of his eyes on me,**

"That's not what I was trying to do." Edward said a little embarrassed looking

That got Jasper and Emmett making fun of him saying things like "Ooooh Edward's eyes are so magical"

**as if trying to communicate something crucial.**

**"No." I set my jaw.**

"Stubborn" Jacob said and Edward nodded

**The gold in his eyes blazed. "Please, Bella." "Why?" I demanded.**

**"Trust me," he pleaded, his soft voice overwhelming.**

**I could hear the sirens now. "Will you promise to explain everything tome later?" "Fine," he snapped, abruptly exasperated.**

"Were you really gonna tell her?" I said to Edward disbelievingly

"I had no intention of telling her the truth" He said smiling sheepishly

**"Fine," I repeated angrily.**

**It took six EMTs and two teachers — Mr. Varner and Coach Clapp — to shift the van far enough away from us to bring the stretchers in. Edward vehemently refused his, and I tried to do the same, but the traitor told them I'd hit my head and probably had a concussion. I almost died of humiliation when they put on the neck brace. It looked like the entire school was there, watching soberly as they loaded me in the back of the ambulance. Edward got to ride in the front. It was maddening.**

**To make matters worse, Chief Swan arrived before they could get me safely away.**

**"Bella!" he yelled in panic when he recognized me on the stretcher.**

"What? I was worried Bells" I said a little hurt

"I know Dad and I love you" Bella said smiling at me

**"I'm completely fine, Char ****—**** Dad," I sighed. "There's nothing wrong with me." He turned to the closest EMT for a second opinion. I tuned him out to consider the jumble of inexplicable images churning chaotically in my head. When they'd lifted me away from the car, I had seen the deep dent in the tan car's bumper — a very distinct dent that fit the contours of Edward's shoulders…**

"Everything" Edward said shaking his head disbelievingly "She noticed _everything_"

**as if he had braced himself against the car with enough force to damage the metal frame…And then there was his family, looking on from the distance, with expressions that ranged from disapproval to fury but held no hint of concern for their brother's safety.**

**I tried to think of a logical solution that could explain what I had just seen ****—**** a solution that excluded the assumption that I was insane.**

**Naturally, the ambulance got a police escort to the county hospital. I felt ridiculous the whole time they were unloading me. What made it worse was that Edward simply glided through the hospital doors under his own power. I ground my teeth together.**

"Told ya, it's who you know" Edward said

**They put me in the emergency room, a long room with a line of beds separated by pastel-patterned curtains. A nurse put a pressure cuff on my arm and a thermometer under my tongue. Since no one bothered pulling the curtain around to give me some privacy, I decided I wasn't obligated to wear the stupid-looking neck brace anymore. When the nurse walked away, I quickly unfastened the Velcro and threw it under the bed.**

Jacob laughed which was quickly joined in by everyone

**There was another flurry of hospital personnel, another stretcher brought to the bed next to me. I recognized Tyler Crowley from my Government class beneath the bloodstained bandages wrapped tightly around his head.**

**Tyler looked a hundred times worse than I felt. But he was staring anxiously at me.**

**"Bella, I'm so sorry!" "I'm fine, Tyler ****—**** you look awful, are you all right?" As we spoke, nurses began unwinding his soiled bandages, exposing a myriad of shallow slices all over his forehead and left cheek.**

**He ignored me. "I thought I was going to kill you! I was going too fast, and I hit the ice wrong****…****" He winced as one nurse started dabbing at his face.**

**"Don't worry about it; you missed me." "How did you get out of the way so fast? You were there, and then you were gone…""Umm… Edward pulled me out of the way." He looked confused. "Who?" "Edward Cullen — he was standing next to me." I'd always been a terrible liar; **

"That's an understatement" Alice said under her breath

**I didn't sound convincing at all.**

**"Cullen? I didn't see him****…**** wow, it was all so fast, I guess. Is he okay?" "I think so. He's here somewhere, but they didn't make him use a stretcher. "I knew I wasn't crazy. What had happened? There was no way to explain away what I'd seen.**

**They wheeled me away then, to X-ray my head. I told them there was nothing wrong, and I was right. Not even a concussion. I asked if I could leave, but the nurse said I had to talk to a doctor first. So I was trapped in the ER, waiting, harassed by Tyler's constant apologies and promises to make it up to me. No matter how many times I tried to convince him I was fine, he continued to torment himself. Finally, I closed my eyes and ignored him. He kept up a remorseful mumbling.**

**"Is she sleeping?" a musical voice asked. My eyes flew open.**

**Edward was standing at the foot of my bed, smirking. I glared at him. It wasn't easy — it would have been more natural to ogle.**

Jasper and Emmett started up making fun of Edward again "Ooh he is sooo hot"

"Shut up" Edward said glaring at them

That got them laughing more

**"Hey, Edward, I'm really sorry ****—****" Tyler began.**

**Edward lifted a hand to stop him.**

**"No blood, no foul,"**

"Ain't that the truth" Leah said her lip curling slightly

**he said, flashing his brilliant teeth. He moved to sit on the edge of Tyler's bed, facing me. He smirked again.**

**"So, what's the verdict?" he asked me.**

**"There's nothing wrong with me at all, but they won't let me go," I complained. "How come you aren't strapped to a gurney like the rest of us?" "It's all about who you know," he answered. "But don't worry, I came to spring you." Then a doctor walked around the corner, and my mouth fell open. He was young, he was blond… and he was handsomer than any movie star I'd ever seen.**

"Aah thank you Bella" Carlisle said good-naturedly

**He was pale, though, and tired-looking, with circles under his eyes. From Charlie's description, this had to be Edward's father.**

**"So, Miss Swan," Dr. Cullen said in a remarkably appealing voice, "how are you feeling?" "I'm fine," I said, for the last time, I hoped.**

**He walked to the lightboard on the wall over my head, and turned it on.**

**"Your X-rays look good," he said. "Does your head hurt? Edward said you hit it pretty hard." "It's fine," I repeated with a sigh, throwing a quick scowl toward Edward.**

Bella threw what I was probably the same scowl at Bella and he shrugged and bent down to give her a quick kiss

**The doctor's cool fingers probed lightly along my skull. He noticed when I winced.**

**"Tender?" he asked.**

**"Not really." I'd had worse.**

"Only you Bella, only you" Jacob said peering over Renesmee to look at Bella. Her answering glare was frightening.

**I heard a chuckle, and looked over to see Edward's patronizing smile. My eyes narrowed.**

**"Well, your father is in the waiting room ****—**** you can go home with him now.**

**But come back if you feel dizzy or have trouble with your eyesight at all." "Can't I go back to school?" I asked, imagining Charlie trying to be attentive.**

I stared at her for a second then shrugged and relaxed. It's true, it would probably be awkward

**"Maybe you should take it easy today." I glanced at Edward. "Does he get to go to school?" "Someone has to spread the good news that we survived," Edward said smugly.**

**"Actually," Dr. Cullen corrected, "most of the school seems to be in the waiting room." "Oh no," I moaned, covering my face with my hands.**

**Dr. Cullen raised his eyebrows. "Do you want to stay?" "No, no!" I insisted, throwing my legs over the side of the bed and hopping down quickly. Too quickly ****—**** I staggered, and Dr. Cullen caught me. He looked concerned.**

"I hadn't seen someone that clumsy in quite a while" Carlisle explained

**"I'm fine," I assured him again. No need to tell him my balance problems had nothing to do with hitting my head.**

"Hahahaha" Everybody laughed

**"Take some Tylenol for the pain," he suggested as he steadied me.**

**"It doesn't hurt that bad," I insisted.**

**"It sounds like you were extremely lucky," Dr. Cullen said, smiling as he signed my chart with a flourish.**

**"Lucky Edward happened to be standing next to me," I amended with a hard glance at the subject of my statement.**

**"Oh, well, yes," Dr. Cullen agreed, suddenly occupied with the papers in front of him. Then he looked away, at Tyler, and walked to the next bed.**

**My intuition flickered; the doctor was in on it.**

"Yes you did notice everything" Carlisle said staring at Bella with interest. She simply shrugged in response.

**"I'm afraid that you'll have to stay with us just a little bit longer," he said to Tyler, and began checking his cuts.**

**As soon as the doctor's back was turned, I moved to Edward's side.**

**"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I hissed under my breath. He took astep back from me, his jaw suddenly clenched.**

**"Your father is waiting for you," he said through his teeth.**

"Hs! Like you were gonna get out of it THAT easily" Bella said smirking

"Like I said earlier, I had to try" Edward responded

**I glanced at Dr. Cullen and Tyler.**

**"I'd like to speak with you alone, if you don't mind," I pressed.**

**He glared, and then turned his back and strode down the long room. I nearly had to run to keep up. As soon as we turned the corner into a short hallway, he spun around to face me.**

**"What do you want?" he asked, sounding annoyed. His eyes were cold.**

"I was hoping if I scared you, you would let it go" Edward explained

**His unfriendliness intimidated me. My words came out with less severity than I'd intended. "You owe me an explanation," I reminded him.**

**"I saved your life ****—**** I don't owe you anything." I flinched back from the resentment in his voice. "You promised." "Bella, you hit your head, you don't know what you're talking about."**

"It's really sad how hard you tried" Bella said

**His tone was cutting.**

**My temper flared now, and I glared defiantly at him. "There's nothing wrong with my head." He glared back. "What do you want from me, Bella?" "I want to know the truth," I said. "I want to know why I'm lying for you." "What do you think happened?" he snapped.**

**It came out in a rush.**

**"All I know is that you weren't anywhere near me ****—**** Tyler didn't see you, either, so don't tell me I hit my head too hard. That van was going to crush us both — and it didn't, and your hands left dents in the side of it — and you left a dent in the other car, and you're not hurt at all —and the van should have smashed my legs, but you were holding it up…" I could hear how crazy it sounded, and I couldn't continue. I was so mad I could feel the tears coming; I tried to force them back by grinding my teeth together.**

"You look cute when you are angry love" Edward said

In return Bella glared back at him

**He was staring at me incredulously. But his face was tense, defensive.**

**"You think I lifted a van off you?" His tone questioned my sanity, but it only made me more suspicious. It was like a perfectly delivered line by a skilled actor.**

"Which I was" Edward said "and yet she till noticed"

**I merely nodded once, jaw tight.**

**"Nobody will believe that, you know." His voice held an edge of derision now.**

**"I'm not going to tell anybody." I said each word slowly, carefully controlling my anger.**

**Surprise flitted across his face. **

"You were so different from all the other humans." Edward said incredulously "I so expected you to go around saying how Edward saved your life all super hero like"

**"Then why does it matter?" "It matters to me," I insisted. "I don't like to lie ****—**** so there'd better be a good reason why I'm doing it." "Can't you just thank me and get over it?" "Thank you." I waited, fuming and expectant.**

**"You're not going to let it go, are you?" "No." "In that case****…**** I hope you enjoy disappointment." We scowled at each other in silence. I was the first to speak, trying to keep myself focused. I was in danger of being distracted by his livid, glorious face. It was like trying to stare down a destroying angel.**

"Don't" Edward cut off Emmett and Jasper before they could start

**"Why did you even bother?" I asked frigidly.**

**He paused, and for a brief moment his stunning face was unexpectedly vulnerable.**

**"I don't know," he whispered.**

"I was already falling in love with you but I was trying to convince myself it was anything, _anything _but that"

**And then he turned his back on me and walked away.**

**I was so angry, it took me a few minutes until I could move. When I could walk, I made my way slowly to the exit at the end of the hallway.**

**The waiting room was more unpleasant than I'd feared. It seemed like every face I knew in Forks was there, staring at me. Charlie rushed to my side; I put up my hands.**

**"There's nothing wrong with me," I assured him sullenly. I was still aggravated, not in the mood for chitchat.**

**"What did the doctor say?" "Dr. Cullen saw me, and he said I was fine and I could go home." I sighed. Mike and Jessica and Eric were all there, beginning to converge on us. "Let's go," I urged.**

"Again so different from humans. Most other would be fishing for more pity and compliments and you cringed away from them" Edward said

"Maybe I was just made for this life" Bella said smiling sly at Edward

**Charlie put one arm behind my back, not quite touching me, and led me to the glass doors of the exit. I waved sheepishly at my friends, hoping to convey that they didn't need to worry anymore. It was a huge relief— the first time I'd ever felt that way — to get into the cruiser.**

"Once again! There is nothing wrong with the cruiser" I said scowling slightly at Bella

"Sure, sure" Bella said putting her hands up in mock surrender

**We drove in silence. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I barely knew Charlie was there. I was positive that Edward's defensive behavior in the hall was a confirmation of the bizarre things I still could hardly believe I'd witnessed.**

**When we got to the house, Charlie finally spoke.**

**"Um****…**** you'll need to call Ren****é****e." He hung his head, guilty.**

**I was appalled. "You told Mom!" "Sorry." I slammed the cruiser's door a little harder than necessary on my way out.**

**My mom was in hysterics, of course.**

"Thanks for that" Bella said sarcastically but smiled to show no harm done

**I had to tell her I felt fine atleast thirty times before she would calm down. She begged me to come home— forgetting the fact that home was empty at the moment — but her pleas were easier to resist than I would have thought. I was consumed by the mystery Edward presented. And more than a little obsessed by Edward himself. Stupid, stupid, stupid.**

"Yes, yes, and yes" Edward said and I saw that little gaze of a private joke fly inbetween him and his wife

**I wasn't as eager to escape Forks as I should be, as any normal, sane person would be.**

I shook my head. I would never understand my ex-wife and daughters aversion to forks. Well she obviously didn't hate forks anymore but you know still…

**I decided I might as well go to bed early that night. Charlie continued to watch me anxiously, and it was getting on my nerves.**

"Excuse me for being worried" I said throwing my hands up

"I know dad, sorry" Bella said

"Hmm" I replied but then smiled at her

**I stopped on my way to grab three Tylenol from the bathroom. They did help, and, as the pain eased, I drifted to sleep.**

**That was the first night I dreamed of Edward Cullen.**

"And that was the end of Chapter 3" Emmett said closing the book

"Should we read another chapter?" Carlisle asked

"Sure. I'll read" Jacob said pulling his arm out from around Nessie's shoulders


End file.
